Our "Pet"

We have a pet. Well, Avery and Piper have a pet. Let me be more specific ... Avery and Piper have a pet that I care for and they rarely even notice.

It all started in June of 2006. We lived like this ...

For you that have children years apart in age ... I'm sorry. We lived by the "kill two birds with one stone" method and potty trained everyone at once. We're overachievers.

Honestly ... I wish ... We never set out to potty train both kids at once. During the course of events, Piper figured out that Avery was getting a lot of attention about this "peeing in the potty" business and hopped on board.

We didn't complain.

This is how I lived for about a month ... Cheering everyone on. Singing Silly Songs. Bribing with M&M's. I can still hear Piper saying to Avery "Come on Avery ... Come on Buddy! M&Ms!!!" She was clearly in it for the food.

We didn't care.

So, eventually it happened. We were officially "potty trained". Everyone at our address could use the bathroom on their own. It was a right of passage after having two kids in diapers for over 18 months. We felt like we had won the lottery.

Being the great parents that we are... we said the kids could have a pet, and then we picked it. A goldfish. Low maintenance. Pees in the bowl. Food is less than $4 and lasts for months. Our kind of pet.

The kids were very excited and named our new friend "Tico". We thought he might live a couple of months and then we'd move on to something else. (Not "something else" another animal, "something else" another toy/friend/new obsession.)

As our luck would have it ... here we are three years later and the fish is still alive. No one pays attention to the fish but me. In fact, it swims to the top of the bowl when it sees me. I should be flattered, but like everyone else in my house - it just means that they want something from me (food)!!!

Also, it bares noting that the fish is no longer Tico. The kids decided last year that they would now like to call the fish "Goldie". This alone is a testament to why we can't have a dog or a cat. Can you imagine how confusing that would be to an animal?

A couple of nights ago Don and I noticed that the fish was turning flips horizontally. Very slowly the fish would roll over. It was strange. We assumed that "the time was near" if you know what I mean.

Every now and then, I'd look over and the fish would be upside down floating at the top of the water. I'd go over, knock on the glass, and he'd roll over and start swimming again.

Bizarre.

I have a friend at work that has a degree in Marine Biology and I figured, although a slim chance, I would ask him about Goldie/Tico.

I'm amazed that he immediately diagnosed the problem. It's called Swim Bladder Disease.

It can be caused by dirty water. Oops. (Look closely at the picture to the left and you'll notice that the fish is upside down. See the eye at the bottom of the body. The quality of the picture stinks, but whenever the fish sees me looking at him/her, it turns right-side-up.)

I hate cleaning the fish bowl. It's not as bad as other housework tasks, it's just the easiest to put off until tomorrow. And, let's be honest, no one complains about it. In fact, no one but me and Tico/Goldie even notices.

I'm glad, at this point, that it seems to be non-fatal. I haven't looked forward to the day that I have to explain death of a pet. But, really, who am I kidding. Would anyone even notice? Actually, I guess they would after a day or two.

Oh, and we are off to a good start in healing. The article says to "withhold food for a day or two". No problem. I fed the fish last night and couldn't remember the last time I fed it before that.

Oops.