My poor little fighter fish has passed away. I don’t know exactly when. He just lay there at the bottom of his tank without moving for days on end. Even when I thought he may actually be dead, I pretended he wasn’t. I hoped in the morning he would be back to his old irritated self, smashing into the side of the tank whenever he saw me approaching. Nope, he never got his fighting spirit back. Rex is gone now.
But even after I knew he was dead, I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing him away so I just let him ‘sleep’ for a few more days until I couldn’t take it anymore. I finally threw the poor thing out this morning.
Plants die in my care. Rex is the only living thing I’ve had for so long, with the exception of a bird or two when I was a kid. We as a family took care of the birds. I was the only one caring for Rex. When I moved back from Chicago and into an apartment, I knew I wanted a fish. Rex was with me since the Fall of 2004. Two and a half years is a long time to be with someone. I’m pretty bummed.
Bummed enough to go to the animal shelter. The thought of adopting a dog has been in the back of my head for quite some time now. I’ve got some barriers I’ll need to conquer. I live in a small place which doesn’t seem to be conducive for owning a dog. I’m kinda lazy and can’t imagine walking a dog EVERYDAY. I kill plants and fish…how am I going to take care of a dog?
I am sure you would handle a dog fine however, have you considered investing a little bit into a community tank? No, not a war machine, a fish tank with more than one critter in it segregated by layers–some fish actually find their niche in rocks on the bottom while others swim mid-tank and yet others closer to the top. Since I’m into making Andy work I’d say that he could give you good information along these line. Note: A fish tank seems to fit your personality, no one needs to be taken out for a walk, the fish can be left alone for a weekend or a week–with a automatic feeder–and they’re pets with benefits. Yep, they have enough personality that you’ll attach and they help calm. What did you think when I said that? Naughty! 🙂
Catherine’s New Puppy
She does it – the loss of Rex drove Catherine to check craigslist to find a puppy. After a bit of searching Catherine finds a wonderful cold wet nosed puppy – now there will be two droolers! [smile] The next task, taking a baby picture of the new companion, of course it is never quite that simple:
Locate puppy and place in a scenic location for a glamour photo.
Put down camera and retrieve puppy from trash can investigation.
Remove puppy from trash and brush coffee grounds from fur.
Clean up spilled trash, sweep coffee grounds from floor and shoo puppy away from nipping at broom.
Retrieve camera, decide on new photo shoot location and retrieve tripod from closet.
Mount camera on tripod and set auto focus on.
Find puppy in closet and yank dirty sock from mouth.
Place puppy in photo spot and return to camera.
Forget about photo spot, retrieve camera from tripod and crawl after puppy on knees.
Hold camera with one hand, fend off and position puppy with other hand.
Get tissue and clean puppy-nose-print from lens.
Locate puppy and begin hands and knees stalking.
Restart stalking after puppy starts away when flash pops up to deal with low light situation.
Gather puppy from under chair where its gone after investigating neighbor’s cat who wandered in through the open door to the deck.
Put cat outside and put peroxide on the scratch on puppy’s nose.
Place magazines back on coffee table.
Try to get puppy’s attention by squeaking toy over your head.
Replace your eyeglasses and check camera for damage.
Jump up in time to grab puppy by scruff of neck and say, “No, outside! No, outside!”
Avoid anger – remember your Lenten pledge – clean up mess.
Fix a drink. A strong one.
Collapse on couch with drink and resolve to teach puppy “sit” and “stay” first thing in the morning!