OK, so it struck me, whilst my seven year old son was feeding water, via a dropper, to Seabushy (aka weed from the ocean) that he may indeed need an actual pet to care for.

We have, of course, tried this before with other animals but for one reason or another, things just haven’t worked out. But to see a child first prepare a funeral for Seabushy Number 1 then resurrect her as a surly tween, aka Seabushy Mark 2, I quickly realised that this kid needed a pet that at least breathed from time to time.

Seeing as I have placed a self-imposed ban on myself adopting any new animals , and my husband has basically given me this as an option (read ultimatum) “get another animal and I walk out that door and never come back”, I was left with no other choice but get cunning. Well, he said no more animals. He said NOTHING about fish.

So yesterday, on a bit of a whim, I went to the local petshop, picked a very old school fish bowl and three very different fish who apparently live harmoniously together. Yeah, just like my three children do.

Sparkles (Named by the female ten year old) is your everyday run of the mill goldfish. Even though when I left the petstore, and for the entire drive home, Sparkles was happily burning around in her bowl, when I walked through the front door, she was laying on the bowl floor, lifeless. Shit Shit Shit. Could I be that spectacularly crap at owning a pet? Seriously? Did I knock her head when I got the bowl out of the car? Had she gotten wedged under a purple rock and had a heart attack? Just when I was about to shield the kids eyes, she got up, swam to the top and kept on swimming.

Jacob Wills Haunted House (aka Seabushy 3 for short) is a black, bug eyed goldfish. He is the most piggish fish I have ever seen. Blew the other two out of the water when it came to sucking up that fish food. He is currently working tag team with Sparkles to move the rocks in the bowl with their heads – conjoined twin style. The seven year old is in charge of Seabushy 3.

Georgia, the new name for the tiny unidentified fish Hurricane Jack selected, is named after his very serious girlfriend from Kindy

So this is kind of our trial run. If we do OK with Sparkles, Seabushy Mark 3 and Georgia, we can present our case to my husband. And maybe something with fur will be next. Although, this statement from my seven year old is not very encouraging. Right before going to bed tonight he came out, kissed the fish bowl and said “Goodnight Seabushy, I hope you don’t die.”