As kids, me n my sis have grown up around animals.. We had many pet cats.. a few neighbourhood dogs, sparrows n pigeons to keep us company.. One of my closest friends had rabbits at home and my cousin even had a pet tortoise at one time.
With lil P it has always been a wish of mine to buy her.. her very own pet… But unlike my childhood, lil P neither has the luxury of a stay-at-home mom nor does she have an independent house with a spacious courtyard. And hubby dearest is not too fascinated by animals ( of any kind).
One day when Lil P came from school and announced that she either wanted a baby sister or a pet.. I knew it was time !!!
When i got to know that my friend who owns an aquarium with gold fishes was going out of town for a week .. I jumped at the opportunity to have a trial run and to see if the 3 of us were ready for a pet in the house..
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So the fish finally arrived..
Its a cute fish tank 1 foot wide and 1/2 foot in depth.. houses 2 goldfish.
After the initial excitement died down, my friend left with repeated warnings that I had to be careful not to over feed them & to be careful when I open the lid as they tend to jump out!!! (yikes). He was also a first time pet owner and few other goldfish that he had earlier had died.. so I was very very queasy abt any of them dying under my care..
As expected P was very very excited.. she has started talking to the fish.. asking them if they were hungry .. I watched her keenly observing the fish opening and closing their mouths …Apparently they do that to drink water !!! ..
Her current fav song is
machli jal ki raani hai
jeevan uska paani hai..
haath lagao dar jayegi..
bahar nikalo mar jayegi.. how apt!
We have bought commercial fish food and feed them twice a day.. today we emptied half the tank n filled it with fresh water.. So far so good. But just thinking abt it made me realise how different this was from taking care of other pets that I have known in my childhood. With cats n dogs the attachment is so obvious.. Not just affection.. the sense of touch is so important. I feel that connection is missing with fishes. I’m not sure when the fishes are hungry.. why do they get all agitated all of a sudden?? Do they sleep?? Should i keep the light on or off?? I’m trying to get some answers from the net .. will update soon.
For now, I’m glad P got a chance to keep them atleast for a week.. This might just be the push we needed to go buy a pet of our own.. I’m thinking of a kitten. Just have to find out a way what do I tell Hubby dearest 🙂
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