Three Times A Mom

I’m not an animal person. Never have been… probably never will be. It’s not that I’m afraid, or don’t think most pets are pretty cute, but they’re generally either dirty or require a ton of work to keep them from being so. The only possible exception is a cat but my husband is allergic so that’s out. I know most of you out there will disagree. Many of you will think that I’m depriving my children by not giving them a furry pet, but you don’t have to clean up after it. All of that said, however, my sister bought the kids a fish last February. She was babysitting for the evening and Alyssa convinced her that we needed a pet. The kids’ first choice was an elephant, followed by a giraffe, but finally decided that a fish was better than nothing. I was okay with that little surprise because I figured it would be dead within the week. Boy was I was wrong. Here it is now December and Mo is as alive as ever. Since when do goldfish live 10 months?! Even Pecadillo, a friend of ours and son of Pyromaniac, who used to maintain fish tanks for a living, is amazed that we're still nurturing the original Mo. A few weeks ago, however, we had a close call. I came home one afternoon to find Mo floating at the top of the fishbowl. A friend called just moments later and we discussed just what you do when a fish dies during naptime. Do you call said sister and have her bring a replacement fish before the kids wake up? Or do you plunge into that conversation on death with a 2 ½ and 4 year-old? Fortunately I didn’t have to answer that question because thanks to the miracle of the internet I discovered that our fish likely had swim bladder disease and he was floating because he had too much gas in his stomach. The cure? A frozen pea. Yes, a pea. So I thawed and squished the pea, fed it to Mo, and a few hours later he was swimming as normal. In the weeks since the first incident he has floated to the top several more times, but I finally purchased a higher quality fish food ($3 for a 6-month supply vs. $1.50) and he now seems to be cured! I feel rather ridiculous going to all this effort for a fish, but after 10 months you actually get a little attached! Good news is, Alyssa has discerned that Mo has been sick and already knows what pet she wants when Mo dies – a mouse!