Pet Love

About twelve years ago, I had hosted my buddy John's dog for a night.  It was a momentous occasion for me given that I was completely traumatized by dogs throughout my childhood. I got bitten by a dog when I was about six and was chased around by street dogs many times. After hearing all those Girl vs Dogs stories from me, John helped me ease into his canine's world. Initially he would send his dog Eddie out onto the patio and close the door so I could get familiar with him from behind the door. Later on, he would put a muzzle on Eddie's mouth and let him get inside the house. Soon, I felt comfortable enough to even go to his apartment and feed Eddie when John was not around.

So I felt reasonably prepared going into the sleepover with Eddie. John dropped Eddie off at my apartment and left after giving me the run down of his food/water/pee/poop schedule. Despite all the preparation leading up to that evening,  I could barely sleep, with a dog under the same roof as me. I left the light on, and tossed and turned in my bed. Turns out it was actually the poor dog that was traumatized by me- he pooped all over my carpet a bit past midnight. 

I have never offered to watch any other dogs since then. My daughter never got chased or bitten by dogs, knock on the wood, but she is just as scared as I am of dogs. So we never really had any reason to consider getting a dog. Not just dogs, any pets for that matter- until recently. Raaga's best friend was going to India and entrusted us with the care of their pet fish, Bubbles. It has been almost four weeks and Ms Bubbles is still alive and swimming so we consider that a better pet-sitting success than my night with Eddie.

While feeding MsBubbles on her birthday recently, Raaga asked if she could also have a pet fish for her birthday. I told her that we could get one at the end of the summer when we are done traveling. For three weeks since then, she has been constantly sick with one summer bug or the other. But she never stopped asking about her own pet fish throughout her sickness. This morning, I saw that someone in our neighborhood was giving their fish away. I felt that it is time I surprised Raaga with a fish. I knew that would totally cheer her up.

Sure enough, she was ecstatic to see her fish. We found out from the neighbors that the fish was called Max by their six year old boy. Raaga told the neighbors that she wanted the fish to be a girl. The neighbors were very nice to suggest that Raaga could change the name from Max to whatever she liked. We brought the fish home, and, as I was filling the water up, Raaga decided on the name 'Maxine' for our fish. So we can still call her Max like the little boy did, she explained. She felt that the boy who had Max before her looked sad as we were leaving their house and suggested that he could come visit Max any time. 

I never thought I would be one of those people talking about pets, let alone owning one. It is only a couple of hours since we brought Max home and I am already melting from the cuteness of it all. 

This is me with Eddie, poor guy had to have his mouth covered for me to get anywhere near him

Raaga with Bubbles (her friend's fish) and Maxine aka Max (her own fish)