Bad Mom

Grandpa Ralph

Once again I was reprimanded by daughter for answering, "A dog and a cat," when asked, "Do you have any pets?" "Mom, you always say a dog and a cat, but you never say that we have a pet fish."

So, in the interest of full disclosure, WE HAVE A DOG AND A CAT AND A FISH.

Now, I don't really think of the fish as a pet. We inherited him from our house's previous owner who didn't want to drag him to their new digs (it's hard to say no when asked, in front of the children, if we'd like to keep him). We were told that he was thirty-five years old, yes 35, when we became his family. We were told that they'd given up on him during the Blizzard of '78 when his tank was so dirty he couldn't be seen. But he came through.

We had a hard time believing that a fish could possibly be so old. But now we've had him for seven years (!!), making him 42 years old. Yup, according to what we've been told, he's now 42. I suppose that's unusual and a feat in itself to live that long (I really don't know about fish, so it could be common, but I doubt it).

So..... we have a dog, a cat, AND a fish.

The end.