I heard the toliet flush.
Another death in the tank this morning.
Every Thursday, our high school starts an hour later.
So it was just me, my senior (about to leave me forever) and Tebow (the black lab, who will never leave me for I am the only one who runs with him.)
As we were walking out the door, I heard the toilet flush.
“The black goldfish died.”
What we just bought him?
So my high school student disposed of the fish before the eight year old got home.
* * *
Much later in the day, the eight year old and I were in Wal*Mart.
“Your black goldfish died.”
Why, oh why do I say such things?
We ended up looking at the fish.
“Here get some guppies. They always have babies,” I hear myself say.
I mentioned how they have babies as much as we have ground beef for dinner.
That’s all he needed to hear.
“Mama. When you are working, you need to take a chair and sit with your computer and watch the fish. When an egg comes out you race over to the little tank and put the egg in it.”
Oh dear.
“Joe,” I explained, “they don’t lay eggs they have live babies.”
His eyes got wide as pecan pies.
“You scoop them up the minute they pop out.”
Great.
This morning we were down one animal.
Tonight we are up five.
Who knows where we’ll be tomorrow?
Who has guppies out there? Can you really keep their babies?
Ooooh… the last time we had goldfish they were named Goldie and Alligator. They both made the journey down the swirlee thing.
I don’t know if you can keep the babies or not. Does the mama eat them?
Guppies…still more manageable than the alpaca…but not nearly as cute! Tell HK that we need to start our alpaca farm…I think your side yard is ideal!
The one good thing about the kids leaving home is that when the pets die, you don’t have to replace them anymore! Of course, the two tortoises will outlive us all, but that’s their problem, not mine!
Donna — I love the names – particularly Alligator. And yes, the mother guppy does eat them. That is why I’m not too worried about overpopulating the tank. Terrible. But I’m not very sentimental about fish.
Oh contraire Jules, you have all the grazing acreage. I’ll have him delivered on Sunday.
Mary Kay — I know what you mean about the tortoises. We have one and she’s supposed to live another 40 plus years. But I’m getting quite attached to her. I worry over her much more than the fish.
Guppies always eat their babies, you have to be quick and separate the little as fas as you can. Or sometimes, if there are a lot of babies, it is easier to take out the parents.
Removing the parents might be the plan, Laura. This will give him a good excuse for another little tank. He’ll be thrilled. Me not so much.