Boots the Fish

December 5-7, 2012

I decided that it would be really fun to get Luke a hamster for Christmas this year. I knew he would love it (he loves all animals). So one day, without telling Luke my plans, I took him to the pet store to check out the selection. And somehow, we wound up coming home with a new pet goldfish named Boots! Over the next day or two, our impromptu purchase escalated to the cost of a hamster. Whoops! There goes his Christmas budget! Who knew goldfish could be so expensive?? But Luke was really excited about his new little friend, so I thought: Oh well, as long as he's happy. We'll just get him the hamster another year.

Dropping in the pebbles one at a time takes while!

So excited to feed Boots!

Love his beautiful fanned out tail!

He wouldn't even leave his new buddy to eat lunch!

It didn't take long for me to decide that little boots looked really sad, lonely, and cramped all alone in that little bowl, so Luke and I headed back to the pet store to get him a bigger tank and a friend!

That's better! Of course, we couldn't resist getting Boots and Dora a few toys too!

Luke wanted to get caught in a "net" (clothes hamper) like his fish.

Luke and I had this conversation the day we got his fish...

Me: "Luke, nope, nope, nope! Don't put your fingers in the fish bowl, please!"

Luke: "My thumb, yes or no?"

Haha! Oh this boy! And later I found half a grape in the tank. Apparently, Luke was trying to share his dinner with his friends. After having to clean the tank twice in one day and noticing that the water was still getting foggy really quickly for some reason and the poor fish where spending most of their time on the surface of the water just trying to breathe, I started to seriously worry that they would both be dead within the week living at our house! I just couldn't stand that thought, so we returned them to the store. Yep, I cleaned everything really well, put the two fish in a gallon-size ziploc bag closed with a hair tie and took EVERYTHING back! The girl at the Petsmart fully refunded everything, even the fish, although she did have to ask a manager first, explaining to me, "Well, we've just never had anyone bring them back alive before." haha I was very grateful!

Luke was sad, but very understanding when I explained that the fish missed their family and they had fun visiting us, but it was time for them to go back to their family at the store. He told everyone that Boots went back to live with his mommy and daddy. And now the hamster was back on the table! I was fairly certain we could keep one of those alive!