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the second step in pet ownership
Rescuing one's pet from near-death caused by one's own negligence. Obviously.
Long story short: cracks appear in fishbowl, I don't notice. While changing fishwater, medium-sized chunk of glass suddenly pops off the bottom of the bowl and 15 litres of water go whooshing out onto my kitchen counter, and, subsequently, floor. Along with my fish. Then, I save fish's life by picking her up off the floor (gingerly, and with some difficulty), throwing her in a bucket, and pouring water on top of her.
It was totally freaky to watch her flop around on the floor, essentially choking to death, then become completely still. How long does it take for a goldfish to die out of water? Anyway, then it was also freaky, but in a different way, to watch her start breathing again as the water got poured on top of her. I give life! I take it away! I am a fishgod!
All of this happened at the most inopportune time possible, by the way, because I was already late to meet my mother and cousin (the one mentioned in previous post) at the Botanical Gardens to see the Butterflies Go Free exhibit. This turned out not to matter, since they eventually showed up an hour later than I did, (at which point I was just glad to see them because I was starting to go out of my mind) but at the time I was completely freaking out, because my kitchen was sort-of half-flooded, and I had a sort-of half-alive fish on my hands.
Anyway, enough about me. The fish lived in mop bucket for a week, hardly moving at all, suffering from what I was convinced was post-traumatic-stress-syndrome. I feared the fish would never recover and I'd have to email Ali in Tokyo and tell her I have managed to kill her former fish within two weeks of taking over its care. Oh, the shame. Eventually, however, I got around to going to the petstore and purchasing a new bowl. With much trepidation, I place fish inside. Fish remains catatonic for several hours. Then, through some miracle, starts swimming around normally again, as though the entire ordeal never happened. I am so relieved, I immediately write about it on my blog. Oh internet, you spared someone from a very tedious phone conversation in which I related the near-death experience of my fish.
Dude. Seriously, though, I never thought I could or would ever care so much about a fish. Especially after only like two weeks. When I went to get the fish at Ali's, her friend laughed at me because I was so excited over a fish. "It's the first step in pet ownership!" I told her. She looked very dubious.
I think present circumstances relate, however, that it's clearly a good thing that I got a fish to practice on before I got, like, a dog, or a goat, or even a ferret.
P.S. Beepster I totally love you and do not view you as a lesser animal in any way, even though you do not really show affection in the way that, say a dog would, if I had saved its life. You aren't just for practice! You rule the school! (Get it? Because you are a fish? I'm here all week. And then for the rest of your natural life. Which I hope is long. In other words, sorry I almost killed you.) Your BFF, Laura.
P.P.S. The butterflies are totally worth going to see, and if you have free time I highly recommend that you go because it ends this weekend. It is good to be reminded, sometimes, in this case by butterflies, of just how totally amazing nature is, and yet also how fragile. My camera is still broken but if it hadn't been, I would have taken a lot of pictures that looked like these.
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