Eulogies...

We have had two pet related "losses" in our household today... 

The first was my Allison's fish Finn... 

Alas we did not have a picture of Finn so one from Google will have to do...

Poor Finn...

Of course there is a story...

You see Allison had wanted a fish since she was about 10 years old. We did not want a fish. We had accidentally won a gold fish at a fair in the early days of our marriage and knew we did not want a fish. Had the neighbor's son not admired that goldfish when he did it was about to be an unwelcome pond mate in a koi pond on campus. (We know it would have been wrong... We were in college and young and stupid... What can I say?) That fish was smelly and required daily bowl changing that required about ten steps to avoid the smell... 

Fast forward many years ahead and here is our daughter begging  for a fish and I felt like I was constantly being mean saying "no" so I made a safe bet. I told her if she could clean her room AND keep it clean for 30 days in a row she could get a fish. I know my daughter... This was (and still is to some point) a safe bet... She is very creative and her room reflects that! Anyhow, I won... Or so I thought... She never managed a full 30 days and we never got a fish... Until she turned 18 and decided she was an adult and had always wanted a fish, so she bought one. At least it wasn't a tattoo I figured.

That was May of last year... By July she HATED the fish... It smelled (SHOCKER) and attracted fruit flies to her room (and our house!!)! We bought it a small aquarium with a pump to cut back on the cleaning, alas the pump kept her up at night, (ironic since she sleeps with a fan or white noise machine on) so the pump was mostly turned off... Therefor nor actually working... Making a LARGER amount of smelly water in her room...

I gave up, I couldn't deal with the fruit flies so Finn moved back into a smaller bowl and onto the kitchen windowsill. I found a way to cut the previous ten step process down to three steps by (wait for it...) buying a second small bowl. (Ahhhhh... The wisdom that comes with age.) 

Anyhow, Paul's Allison's cat found Finn very interesting and although he never tried to hurt him but he did want to play him. This started a non-stop nightly ritual of us shooing the cat off the kitchen counter. (Fun huh? Drove me nuts!!) In the mad scramble of said cat the other night Finn's bowl got knocked down. He survived but this morning he was no longer swimming in his bowl. 

Poor unwanted Finn...

On a less sad but not less tragic (to me at least) note, we also laid to rest my super cute pet food dishes this week. I know this does not seem like a big deal but last year I searched for the perfect cat food dishes for months and I really liked them a lot. They were just the right size to not need constant re-filling but not "dog food bowl" big. They were ceramic and easy to clean. They were a creamy color with black polka dots and they were adorable. I wish I had taken pictures of them. 

Around the same time I bought them I spotted this cute pet-food "crock" online from Pottery Barn. 

(catalog photo)

I fell in love, as pet food storage is usually utilitarian and not cute... It was a no brainer, I had to have it! Ironically it is not ceramic but some kind of resin, It really, really looks like ceramic and the solid (and HEAVY) solid wood lid sells the look... 

Alas it may have been the faux nature of this "crock" that made it jealous of the authentic ceramic nature of the cute dishes sitting beside it. On Monday night the heavy wooden lid took a flying leap out of my hand and crushed the water dish. This morning we learned it's rein or terror was not over as it managed to escape Paul's grasp to lay the food dish to waste. Now it has a couple non-intimidating pyrex dishes as it's temporary neighbor and my search for cute pet food dishes shall start over. 

They say these things happen in threes... Do the dishes each count as one or two? Should my pets & pet related decor be concerned? I hope not!

Thanks for listening,