...Priceless

Some of you know our horrible history with dogs...we at one point thought we were dog lovers, and have found out the very hard way that we are not. Case in point, Lucy, our latest, was living with us on very thin ice given her total disrespect for me and an incident with a Westie named Lily over the summer. However, we were willing to give her a shot at the new house with a big yard to run in and lots of sidewalk for walks.


Day one in the new house and Lucy had diarrhea all over the brand new tile in the laundry room.

I was really, really, re-thinking our decision as I was on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and Clorox scrubbing grout on our first full day here. But dogs need time to adjust, and she was probably nervous in the new house, so we decided to keep to the original plan. Frequent walks around the block, brief periods in the house to get used to it, frequent praise.

Then last Thursday I was walking her past the neighbors and a few of the neighbor kids wanted to pet her. She was on a leash, but jumped up and nipped one of the boys in the chin... no intent to bite, mind you, but Lucy plays rough and is all muscle, so it left a little mark. In our minds we didn't have an option but to find a new home.... with a promise that we will never never get another dog until the kids are grown and we get one that weighs 3-4 pounds, max.

Long story short, Lucy has a new home with a family with teenage children and a big black lab. They love her and I'm sure she is much happier.

However, parental guilt plauged me, even though the kids seemed unphased by the whole ordeal. So we set out to buy goldfish Sunday evening. Went to couple of pet stores ( OK, Andersons, where we were anyway, and then to PetCo.) The sales person at PetCo re-assured us that 3 goldfish in a .5 gallon tank with no filter would do just great. Us being non-fish people, took his word and went home with 3 goldfish and 3 excited kids.

I sent the boys off to school yesterday, eying E's fish closely. Some of you in the nursing world are familiar with the term "guppy breathing" ? Her fish was guppy breathing. Then pretty soon it was floating in the bottom of the tank. I called PetCo, explained to the manager what his salesperson sent us home with, and come to find out 3 goldfish need at least a 10 gallon tank, some de-chlorinator for the tap water, and a filter. Oh, and as they get bigger, they need a bigger tank. ( Or the pond at the end of our street. ). I called pet supplies plus to make sure I wasn't just being sold on a bigger tank, and as I was talking to that lady, H's fish went belly up. (!). So we made the trek to PetCo with E, the .5 Gallon tank, and two dead fish. ( E, the fishys are sleeping and we have to get medicine to make them better ). It took a couple of hours to get the tank set up but we now have 3 goldfish and 3 excited kids again.

I feel like a Mastercard Commercial