From Zero to Two in a Week

Do I have you puzzled over my headline for this post? Well, it refers to the number of pets in our household. Ella is so thrilled. She says, "Mom, first we had no pets and now we have two! Holy cow! I'm excited by that!" Very cute indeed.

What she is referring to is first, our latest addition to the family, presenting Queenie Dora the Goldfish.

Admiring Queenie Dora before we got her fish "jar".

This was soooo not my idea! Just in case anyone was wondering. :-) We went up north in Wisconsin last weekend with Andrew's parents (more on that in another post) and there was a craft fair. At the fair, they had a few kiddie things one of which was a whole table of small little fish bowls each containing a goldfish. The object of the game: toss a ping pong ball into the small opening of a goldfish bowl, if you can actually do it, you win a goldfish. While Tom, Lily and I were playing at the park, off Ella, Pat and Andrew went to look at the fair. About 15 minutes later, we run into the three of them and Ella is carrying a goldfish in a ziploc bag! I look at Andrew like, "What did you do?!" He simply read my look and said, "There was no way she was going to win! And she didn't, the guy just gave her one anyway." OH great. So we're four hours from home, no fish bowl, not even a container really deep enough to put the fish in. I told Andrew, "This is so on you. You are in charge of it." We trot over to Walmart and find fish food and improvise a large jar (with a lid for bringing the fish home in the car, Tom poked some holes in the top of it) for a fish bowl. Viola! Instant pet.

Ella and Lily were thrilled and are sharing the fish. We gave them both ownership in they each gave the fish a name; Queenie from Ella and Dora from Lily, thus Queenie Dora. We were highly skeptical that the fish would actually survive the weekend, let alone a week. But she's still swimming around and has happily figured out when I drop the food in, she should swim to the top to eat it. Andrew is so in charge of cleaning the bowl.

Making fish faces.

So now, you're wondering hmmm....what could the second pet be? Well, my mom and Dave did decide to come stay with us for a bit after all. Cedar Rapids was planning on turning off the water in various areas and they said that the highest points in the city would be first. So, that would be where they live. Also, Dave's surgery was postponed indefinitely for now. My step-uncle Dennis (he's a doctor), spoke with Dave's cardiologist to see if there were any other options other than the surgery. They are going to try some monitored cardiac rehab at the moment to see if they can redirect the blood flow and not have to do anything for the time being. So they figured since the surgery was no longer looming over their heads, they could head up here for a while until things calmed down a bit in Cedar Rapids. Oh right, the pet...Well, they couldn't leave the cat at home for a week, most of the shelters/kennels were full with rescued animals, and they didn't want to bother any friends with looking in on the kitty. So, Lucy is now living at our house for the week as well. The girls love it! The cat not so much. They chased her all around the basement and up and down the stairs several times. Whoo hooo! A way to tire the kids out!

Lucy is still getting used to her surroundings and has not discovered Queenie Dora yet. I'll let you know our pet count again next week. We may be back to zero. :-) More posts coming.....