Imaginary animals

The other day Jack ran into the den to tell us a tiger was in his room. I usually entertain his claims because he may find a lizard in his room and call it a dinosaur. And with him letting the random stray cat into our house, I wouldn't be surprised to find him/her (I never looked to see gender) in his room and hear him proclaiming a tiger was there. So he led me to his room, holding hands, and pointed at the floor where the tiger was. I saw nothing. He then proceeded to tell me the tiger was scary. I told him the tiger was sleeping and was a nice tiger.

This went on for a while. In the days since then, the tiger has moved around our house, and in the mean time we've also added an alligator and monkey to the mix. The alligator is big and is only in mama and daddy's room. The monkey jumps on our bed. He is dead serious. He will hide from the alligator under the covers of my bed. He jumps with the monkey. Maybe he won't have an imaginary friend, but the animals might be worse. They scare him and make him rather hyper. I am pretty fascinated by his big imagination. I wonder if we could somehow use these creatures to our benefit... like convince him to sleep alone in his bed or eat an entire meal. A mama can dream.