I’m sorry to report that Angie, the Angelfish, is no longer with us. :0(
I cleaned the fish bowl and both fish were swimming around happily. The next day I didn’t see Angie. I looked all around the bowl, but didn’t see her. I thought she might be hiding in the neon ‘house’, so didn’t worry.
Today I cleaned the bowl again and found her UNDER the neon house. I have no clue how she was able to get under it. So now Sally, the bright yellow fish, is alone until we can arrange to get back to Fort Smith and see if we can find compatible friends for her.
Note: I have a ceramic bowl I put the fish in while I’m cleaning their ‘goblet.’ While I was cleaning, I saw movement beside me. Sally had suddenly jumped out of the bowl and was flapping around on the counter! I quickly brushed her from the counter into my hand and then back into the ceramic bowl, putting a towel over it. When her home was nice and clean with fresh water, I carefully poured her back into the goblet.
I will look for a deeper bowl to keep her in while she waits for her ‘maid’ to do the cleaning…
Filed under Family
Dr. Seuss – Horton Hears a Who – via encurious.com via Melissa A. Eastman
Filed under Family, Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental
A couple of days ago I told you that my sweet black goldfish, Freckles, was suddenly dead this week. We got an angel fish I named “Angie.” I thought about buying two fish when I got her, but my husband thought one was enough.
Several of my good friends read about Angie and thought – as I did – that she should have a friend. I talked to my husband about it, suggesting that we could do our grocery shopping this morning where I bought Angie.
Sally is a very lively, bright sunny yellow fish. I don’t know what kind of fish she is. I just loved the way she looked as she darted around the tank in the store.
I’m not sure if either of these fish are female, but have named them “Angie” and “Sally” regardless. (This goes with our weird pattern around here. Our cat, Abby, whom we spayed when we adopted her, is called, “Mr. Cat” by my husband. He thinks it’s funny, and she doesn’t seem to mind.) Our newest cat, Smoke, is also a spayed female, but my husband keeps referring to her as “he.” Since Smoke is relentless in her play and quite fearless, it almost seems possible that ‘she’ is a ‘he.’
I just changed the water in the fish bowl, putting in a new neon brightly-colored ‘hiding place’ particularly for Sally, who apparently “likes to swim into places she can hide” according to the information at the store. She shows no signs of this yet, however.
So far, they haven’t fought or tried to eat each other – a very good thing. Hopefully, they can entertain each other and make each other giggle as they adapt to being in the Lewis household.
Filed under Family
Freckles
Freckles is gone. I have no clue why he died, but he was gone suddenly two days ago. I’ll miss him. Even though some would say, “He’s just a fish. Fish don’t have personalities,” they’re wrong. Freckles came immediately to the side of the bowl I was on whenever I came near. He would ‘play’ with my finger on the side of the glass, blowing bubbles at me. I’ll miss that.
We now have a new member of the family, Angie.
Angie is an angel fish, as different from Freckles as I could get without getting a fish that needed salt water. She’s skittish right now, startling when I come close to the bowl.
Please say “Hi” to Angie and tell her that she’s been adopted by some reasonably nice people who really love their fish. Maybe she’ll calm down and decide this isn’t so bad after all…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Spirit-105.3 via Cathy Ruggiero
This brings tears to my eyes. We must have done something right, in that our son is quite the world traveler, now feeling quite comfortable using Uber wherever he is, securing lodging through AirBnB, handling visas, passports, travel arrangements, etc. with more ease than I make our weekly grocery list. He lives and works out of the country at the moment. We are grateful that he’s a good communicator, and that we can sometimes put the fact that he’s a world away out of our minds. May he continue to soar!
Filed under Family, Favorite Quotes
Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Family, Favorite People, Favorite Quotes, Friendship
Anita Opper – Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero
I can’t imagine life without a dog or cat or fish, or several of all three.
Losing a pet is one of the very hardest things there is. You find yourself sobbing, guts hanging out for all to see. Fewer things in life hurt more.
Some people decide, after losing a beloved pet, that they just won’t get another. They don’t want to open themselves up to that kind of hurt again. You give to a pet unlimited love. You talk to them about everything because they’re so understanding and compassionate. You become co-dependent, feeling lost and alone when one of you isn’t there.
My husband and I have been lucky enough to have several pets over the years. Each time we lose one we’re devastated – inconsolable. For us, though, the only thing that helps us is to go right out and find another.
Even though we aren’t sure we really want to, if we’re lucky enough to find another sweet animal to come live with us, we’re FORCED to reach out to meet the sweet little thing’s needs. We CANNOT withdraw into ourselves. We must feed it. We must take it outside. We must make a home for it, with bed, water and food bowls, a collar, tags, shots, spaying or neutering – the whole 9 yards.
In the process of doing this, we have found that, although we don’t miss the beloved pet any less, the new wriggling furry bundle of joy has helped our hearts heal a bit. Our new addition has forced us to go on, reacting to each other as well as the fuzzy little animal, filling a void with someone who needs us.
Yes, “Dogs are Miracles with Paws.” Anita Opper has said it perfectly. I love the bright little eyes on this guy, running to us, hoping he’ll be accepted…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
This is Abby. She was listed in the paper as a “Lap Kitty.” We adopted her and have felt very lucky to get one of the sweetest cats we’ve ever had.
Smoke
I saw Smoke at the vet’s office. I went over to the cage to say, “Hello,” and she immediately tried to nuzzle me. She talked to me and was very affectionate. I was a goner and convinced my sweet husband that we had room in our family for a second cat.
She has proven to be a real hard-head. She doesn’t know when to quit and still digs her claws in or bites occasionally, even though she receives bad feedback each time she does either.
Poor Abby has felt besieged by Smoke, who jumps on her relentlessly. There is a lot of hissing and spitting (all from Abby).
I found them on the dog bed today. (Actually, they’re on BOTH dog beds, as the blue one is Bambi’s and the white one is Molly’s. I guess they wore each other out…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant.”
― Scott Adams
I introduced you to Freckles awhile back. I bought him, and a goldfish I named Sushi almost a year ago now. I bought them after babysitting with a friend’s tropical fish while she was on a trip. I found, after returning him, that I really missed seeing him.
The fish did fine for awhile, and then poor Sushi died. I decided to just have Freckles by himself, unless he showed signs of missing Sushi. He’s been happy by himself, getting active and blowing bubbles at me every time I come into the room. He doesn’t say much, but I enjoy him a lot.
One amazing thing is how much he’s grown. When I bought him, he was the smaller of the two fish, at about an inch and a half long. Now I’m estimating he’s over 3 inches long. I hope he doesn’t get much larger or I’ll have to go with an actual aquarium. I would like to stay with this bowl, since Freckles is a messy fish, needing his water changed every other day.
To date, Smoke has NOT discovered Freckles…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Herding cats is like trying to nail jello to a tree.” – Unknown
This is Smoke, the young cat we’ve adopted into our pet family of two dogs and another cat.
To say that Smoke has a mind of her own is a vast understatement. She radiates confidence and has no common sense about when enough is enough. Abby, our older cat, puts up with things as long as she can stand it, then starts hissing and spitting. Smoke studiously ignores Abby’s rejection and continues to attack her.
I used to have a bunch of ‘dust catchers’ on our dining area window sill. Smoke decided to get up there, mindless of the knick-knacks, causing several to crash to the floor. I removed all of the surviving breakable stuff. Then I tried to grow some herbs in pots. That’s a great place for plants due to the sun. They lasted about a week. A crash and a half hour cleanup of ruined plants and shattered pots killed that idea.
I have two unbreakable things on the window sill now. Both have ended up on the floor.
In desperation, we have put mousetraps all along the window sill. We came home from errands a few days ago and two of the traps had been triggered and were on the floor. Smoke was no worse for wear and acted as if nothing had happened.
We’ll look like a fortress until “Miss Hardhead” learns that this place is a “NO-NO.” If it doesn’t work, I’m thinking about how I can spruce up the mousetraps so they look a bit more decorative…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Sweet Molly is a Schnauzer/Cocker Spaniel cross we bought several years ago. I wanted a “lap dog,” and our pit bull, Bambi, was too big for that even when he was a puppy. Molly was going to be my sweet, lady-like, cuddly lap dog. She had a bubbly personality that offset our serious pit bull nicely. She acted a fool and made him laugh. She brightened up the whole family.
I got part of what I wanted. She is a good lap dog, though she’s a bit too large and heavy. We spend a good amount of time cuddling in my recliner and she does make all of us laugh. She didn’t get the memo about ‘sweet’ and ‘lady-like,’ though.
Her hunting skills put Bambi to shame. She runs all over the yard nose to the ground in patterns only she can appreciate. She sticks her nose into holes or anywhere she smells something interesting. She loves to pretend she’s super-brave – barking like a fiend when she thinks she’s on the trail. We can readily tell if she’s found something above her pay grade, though. Her bark changes to a high-pitched, ‘somebody help me’ bark. We all run to her aid, including Bambi, who then dispatches possums or other weird critters Molly has uncovered.
Lately Molly has come in covered from nose to tail with burrs. They’re little bitty and stick badly to her hair. The last few days she’s come in with a totally black, wet, burr-covered muzzle, similarly covered feet, and burrs all over. It has taken me about half an hour with a comb to get all the burrs out. She is not a happy camper.
We took her to be groomed this morning. I asked the groomer to ‘sheer her like a sheep’ short all over. The groomer would prefer to leave wonderful, cute ‘eyebrows,’ longer hair on her ears, and a mustache, but I have to tell her no. SHE is not the one who has to bathe the dog at least every other day, or get the burrs out while Molly acts as if I’m torturing her. She is much happier, and much easier to repair when she looks like this. We call her “Sleek Molly,” or “Summer Molly” this time of year.
Filed under Family
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