This past Monday was the tournament for my Monday night volleyball league. Like I did during the tourney for my Thursday night league, I sat around talking to my teammates. And, like what happened then with that conversation leading to blog material (see “Wives Judging Wives”), Monday night’s conversation also provided blog material. (This time for the Pets Blog, though, instead of the Marriage Blog.)
It all started once I told two girls on my team, Jennifer and Susan, what exactly it is I do during the day. Susan’s an ardent animal lover. She’s very involved with rescuing dogs.
At first I thought I’d be heading down the blog material highway with that, but it was Jennifer who led us in a different direction.
The Begging Fish
“I can’t help you with marriage or pets. Anything about being a single parent, though, and I’m your expert,” Jennifer started out. “Although, I swear when I go in to get my son’s clothes ready for him in the morning, his Beta fish that’s in his room begs for his fish food.”
She proceeded to tell us how he’ll swim to the top and sort of follow her to the left or right, truly as if he’s saying, “Feed me.”
This sparked a memory for Susan.
The Begging Turtle
“When I was growing up we had a turtle in the kitchen, and it would beg. Every time we opened the refrigerator it’d rush out and stand there looking at us with its little tail wagging.”
Apparently Susan’s mom kept brine shrimp in the freezer and would feed that to the turtle. She suspected because of that he learned to associate food with the refrigerator. (Smart turtle!)
Cute Visuals
I got a big kick out of these stories because they were so different from the ones I normally hear. I could just picture a little fishy puckering his mouth and looking at Jennifer with his big fish eyes willing her to hurry up and sprinkle some fish kibble for him to nibble.
And then thinking of a turtle with a wagging tail…I love turtles and thinking of one begging like that just tickled me to no end.
Question to Readers
Have you ever had an aquarium pet that begged?
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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