Thursday, April 04, 2013

Ernie

My youngest daughter has a fish. She won him at the Octoberfest carnival that our school puts on each year. Instead of winning a baggie of water with a goldfish in it like when I was a kid, she won a little slip of paper that she needed to take to the pet store to claim her prize. It turns out that these fish would cost $0.20 if purchased outright. And the ticket to win the fish cost $1.00.

She won 14-tickets.

Two years ago, these $.20 fish cost us at least $25 per fish because we just had to buy the little tank, rocks, food and those drops that keep the fish from dying from Chlorine in the water. This year, I was able to dig out the tank and fill it up. The costs were much less, though we still had to purchase food and the drops.

Anyway, with 14-tickets, we've filled the tank up a few times. Being only a gallon tank and the fact that no one like over-crowded conditions, we only put in a couple/few at a time. Then the tickets expired and heaven forbid we should pay that $0.20 for more once they're no longer "free".

The current fish has been hardy enough to last quite a while. My daughter named him Mr. Gold. I call him Ernie (though Earnie would be funny, too.) Officially then, he's Mr. Ernie Gold.

This fish loves me. He follows me around the room. No, he can't walk around the room, but he can swim to each corner of his little tank to be as close to me as possible. And given that the tank is a rectangle with two clear sides, he faces me depending on which side of the tank I'm on. I haven't noticed that he does it for anyone else.

I don't know if he does it because I feed him and change his water or that I'm the one who spends the most time at home. Maybe it's because I'm probably the only one who pays any attention to him. The cat doesn't even pay attention to him anymore. It doesn't really matter, because I care about the welfare of this little guy now. I didn't want anymore pet fish, but now that I've grown attached to Ernie, I'm okay that he's still around.