I am not a pet person. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy other people's pets and I enjoy the idea of pets but I am not good at taking care of pets. I hate cleaning up after them, feeding them, and dealing, in some cases, with their hair. As I type this I realize that some of these same things could be applied to motherhood but I enjoy that- hmm, something to analyze later. I tried to like pets, I really did. I would take care of the neighbors' cats when they went on vacation only to have my dad come over and feed them so I wouldn't throw up. I would have to cover my mouth and nose every time I went to feed the dog because the smell of dry dog food made me gag. And don't even ask me about cleaning up after the family pet- I hated it.
When I was in eighth grade my parents found the perfect pet for me- a box turtle. Teancum and I spent many great years together. She lived in the garden during the spring and summer and I would throw her a strawberry or peach to go with her diet of garden snails. During the winter she slept in the aquarium in my room, yes slept. I occasionally had to bath her but I never had to feed her anything gross or clean up her waste- it was fabulous.
When Christian and I got married the kids had a beta named Blue Tail. Blue Tail lived about a month after our marriage, Laine stopped feeding him. After that we just decided to take a break from the pet thing. Even though the kids asked for chickens, or dogs, or even a snake we just said no, it also helped that we had a rental agreement that only allowed fish.
Then came the move and it was time to revisit. When I suggested that we start with a fish and work our way up. I was assuming we would get a nice bowl. maybe a small aquarium and house a couple fish. Christian though had another idea.
We ended up getting a very big aquarium one that will house many many fish.
The kids had a ball figuring out what kind of fish they wanted and how they were going to rotate taking care of them. They were very sad on Saturday when we just left the store with a tank, filters, rocks, a light, glass cover, and various other sundry products. Yes, we left without any fish. That night they helped haul pitcher after pitcher of water to fill our 39 gallon tank. Monday night we took them to the store and the chose some hardy fish to be our aquarium homesteaders. Though the name process took quite a toll on everyone.
We ended up with five fish- Campfire, Brownie, Peach, Orangey, and Mango and the kids adore them. They are even looking forward to vacuuming out the tank on Saturday, there was even a fight over who would get to do it today.
I know that this won't last. That soon I will be reminding them to feed the fish or cleaning the tank but I love how much they already love these little scaly things.
