Many years ago when Dinah was about seven we took care of a dumpy tree frog named Hoppy. We put Hoppy's little aquarium next to Pixie's. Pixie is our African pixie frog pictured above. We've had Pixie for about fourteen years. She lives in the kitchen.
Dinah and I came home and noticed something was very wrong with Pixie. She looked as if she would explode any minute. Then we looked for Hoppy. Hoppy was missing.
Yes, Pixie ate Hoppy. We searched pet stores for another Hoppy before our friends came home. I told my friend what had happened, but not the kids, who were baffled by Hoppy's change in appearance and behavior. Hoppy 2 hopped more.
Bad Life Lesson for Dinah.
;p
Cut to 2007. Dinah's in charge of the koi pond, which Jon takes great care of, while we're in Colorado. Dinah has a full time job, a boyfriend, two horses to take care of, etc. She's a bit overbooked.
No she didn't eat the koi. She fell asleep while refilling the pond, which overflowed greatly and quite a few fish died. She didn't tell us on the phone, when we checked in.
She didn't tell us the first night we got back.
But there were papers around the house listing koi dealers in Southern California, and my computer was on, googled to koi stores. I looked in the pond, and the fish didn't look familiar. I called her at work. Long pause, after the big question.
She went out and bought hundreds of dollars worth of koi!! She said she was going to tell us! It was an unhappy scene all around. The new grossly expensive fish aren't even pretty. Did my bad example of Hoppy 2 make her think this might work?
9 comments:
I'm sorry, but I can't stop laughing. This is serious, I know. I'm really sorry but I'm rolling on the floor. But I realize it's a very serious matter and I'll try to get a grip on myself in a few minutes. But
helps me get a grip on it!
What do the new koi look like?...how are they different from the ones who died? No, the Hoppy history is not the reason. Face it, Dinah wanted to get caught---she left clues around, clues galore. It was the only way she could tell you. She needs another vacation, or a lighter schedule. The fish pond ticket/image is heaven. Linda: this is NOT funny.
Katy, I know. It's a very serious matter. I'll stop laughing soon.
The new fish are all nakeds, (what we call them), white with no obvious color. We like color in koi without spending bucks for the correct patterns. The fish are not eating, so they may not be with us long...
Of the first three fish we got, only one survives, 13 years later, and that's Dinah's fish, an ugly naked, now king of the pond.
The whole thing is like some awful mystery which we don't want to solve.
I don't think she left a trail for us to discover, katy, though it could seem like that. One of her biggest problems is inability to throw things away. And since I've been ultra respectful of her space and privacy, she doesn't even think of the trail she leaves behind. Her mind doesn't work like that. We're easy parents because she's a very principled person. Sounds high and mighty but I think describes her.
She plans to be a vet so she'll see a lot of animal horror sad sad along that road.
I see how funny it all is, but, I'm still in a weird state, thought I was having an LSD flashback this morning, and I only ever took it once only once.
The fish pond illo is from a catalog I was about to list on ebay, but then became so charmed with it that I just sat there looking at the pictures of all the 1920s carnival novelties.
Gotta add this:
I'm looking for a retirement home for my old Thoroughbred Pepper and had been thinking I'd send him up north near Davis, where Dinah will be, so she can keep an eye on him if we're in Colorado.
Then I started thinking, suppose Dinah calls me and says, "Mom, I got you another old horse"-- switched him out-- NO!
I hope Dinah got some rest and doesn't feel miserable. It's awful being that tired.
I'm so sorry to hear about the fish. My heart goes out to both you and Dinah, because she surely has felt awful about the whole situation. I'm neurotic and always wish I could just go back and fix something so that it never happened and I don't have to feel the grief; perhaps that's what Dinah was trying to do. I snap at anything these days, so I'm sure I would have snapped if I came home and found different fish. How great you all love animals so much; we never had any pets because my mom was scared of them. The bottom line is you and Dinah love each other and the animals. I suspect she learned a painful lesson and would never try to replace your horse. I think there's a short animated film in all this.... It helps me to make art out of a situation.
Nice ";p"---there was a spill in aisle seven, yessiree
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