A tribute to my pets

They are weird and wacky. Some days I really do fear for my future children, because I have never owned a "normal" pet....

I was preparing myself for the fact that this post was going to be something like R.I.P. Bubbles, so in a panic I took several pictures of my faithful fish below. (Bubbles is the white and speckled guy.)He is my school fish. I got him last year at the beginning of the year with preschoolers, because classroom pets can be a great transition for those tearful mornings when saying goodbye is tough. Feeding the fish his breakfast is a tremendous responsibility and a very cool thing to do. He was great with the little guys - extremely patient with the curious tap-taps (though they were pretty good about it pretty quickly) and even patient as they learned to fish him out using the net on the days they helped me change his water. He is also a bossy little guy. Just this morning to KB I said I should've named him Bubba instead of Bubbles, because he can truly create a lot of noise when he wants to eat (which is ALL the time). Anytime someone walks past he screams (if that's possible for a fish) loud fishy noises and flips his tail all about until he gets fed. Ok, he got used to many breakfasts a day with the preschoolers.....

I almost lost him once already. During school breaks, Bubbles came to live with me at home. The day I was transporting him back to school after winter break, it was so cold and his water got so cold that when I was filling his tank again at school I couldn't even get the water out of the tap to be cold enough to match that which he was swimming in. For about a week, Bubbles just laid at the bottom of the tank. Of course the kids were all very worried and asked what was wrong with him, and we had some great conversations about how he was sick and how when they are sick they just want to sleep all the time too. They asked about taking him to the doctor of course, and B even said, "When I am sick my mommy takes care of me until I feel better, so now I want to take care of Bubbles until he feels better." We were all rooting for Bubbles - me most of all, because I was really preparing the death talk for three year olds. I avidly googled how to nurse sick fish back to health, and it really worked. For as much as it's possible to love a fish, I love this fish - he's a great classroom fish. I was getting ready to take him back for the second graders this year.

Last week on the morning I was talking about taking him back to school, Bubbles started floating belly-up every time I walked by. So I panicked, took a bunch of pictures because I wanted to remember how great he was, and didn't end up taking him to school that day. When I got home at night he was fine. I kid you not, two days later, when I was getting ready to take him in again, belly-up. Didn't take him, then he was fine. The weekend passed and he has been fine. I haven't talked about taking him in again, and he has been fine. Coincidence or not, I think it will have to be a sneak attack to bring him in - no talk of a plan. The little stinker is clearly not ready for summer vacation to be over yet!

And then there is Mims the Wondercat. We recently got a new small area rug to put under our coffee table. Mims has now decided that this will be her new home. She lives under the coffee table now. She only comes out to eat and use her box. She doesn't even come out for pilates anymore. Mims in her new home.... :)