Grandma Tewsley gave Alden a fish for his fourth birthday. His name is Bobby Flippy. We have not discussed the fact that Bobby Flippy might be female with Alden. I figured Bobby could be short for Roberta so there was nothing to worry about.
I spent the first couple of weeks worrying about Bobby Flippy the way I worried about my newborns in their first few months of life. Is he breathing? Is he floating on the top of the water because he is dead? Or, is he just looking for some food? So far, Bobby Flippy is thriving.
Bobby Flippy is quite pretty. Lovely shades of blue. But he is a Beta fish. We were told that he needs to live alone because Beta fish eat other fish. He is pretty - but evidently not all that nice.
Because he lives alone, and might be lonely, Alden thought Bobby Flippy needed a friend. A plastic pink fish (one with a spring and suction cup that jumps into the air if you press it down) is now neatly positioned outside Bobby Flippy's tank. Every now and then Bobby Flippy swims past. Alden thinks he is happy to have a friend. I think Bobby Flippy is pissed that the pink plastic fish is beyond his reach.
Bobby Flippy is Alden's first pet. Alden is destined for a childhood of non-cuddly pets, because things with fur make me sneeze (a lot!). He will have to have pets like fish and turtles. No snakes. They make me sneeze too. This reality makes me sad. I love dogs.
My parents took my brother and I to the humane society to get a puppy when I was in the 4th grade. (I didn't develop a dog allergy until I was an adult). We came home with a 2-year old collie named Kelly. We didn't pick the name Kelly. She came with that name. We could never quite convince my cousin Kelly of that fact.
Kelly (the dog, not the cousin) loved to go for rides in the car. She also loved to attend local little league games. It was not so much the game that she liked, but the attention she got while she was there. Everyone would scratch her ears, tell her how pretty she was, or comment that she looked like Lassie. After the game she would prance home with an inflated ego and a happy heart.
My brother and I also had rabbits. My rabbit's name was Snowshoe. Feminine. Pretty. Delicate. My brother named his rabbit Buck. We didn't keep up our end of the bargain in caring for Buck and Snowshoe. My father arranged for a nice man to take "care" of our rabbits. Then, I thought they were going to live on his farm. Now, I am pretty certain that Buck and Snowshoe became rabbit stew.
When I was in college, my roommate and I were stumbling home from an evening out when we found a lost dog. A little solid black fur ball. We snuck him into the dorm. The next day I begged my parents to take the dog in. They agreed to take him until we found the owner. My dad, who has a quirky sense of humor, named the dog Spot. We never did find Spot's owner. My dad arranged for a man to take "care" of Spot. Unlike Buck and Snowshoe, Spot went to a good home.
Like Alden, I too had a fish. I only remember one thing about my fish. I spilled water from his bowl onto my mother's coffee table. I didn't do a good job of cleaning up the mess. Long after my fish died, the water ring remained on the coffee table. I don't remember his name. A name is important. Kelly, Buck, Snowshoe, Spot and my old fish What's His Name. I am writing this Blog so Alden will always remember that his fish (his first pet) was named Bobby Flippy.
