Nemo, Nemo, and Spot

November is blog-a-thon month.

Some crazy blogger out there decided to challenge all bloggers to blog something every day during the month of November. And some crazy parent of a few of my students decided to mention it.

I don't think I can blog every day for a month-so I'm going to take it one day at a time.

When we moved in to our house, one of the selling points for me was this gorgeous garden surrounding a little fountain in the backyard.

Because we have children, the garden is now a forest. And for the past two years, the fountain had 2 (maybe 3) goldfish in it.

Up until yesterday.

Isn't it crazy that the fish disappeared on Halloween?

Anyway, about 2 and a half years ago, I decided to purchase a few goldfish for my then 2 year old daughter because she was so in love with the movie "Finding Nemo." I don't know what I was thinking. I like aquariums in other peoples houses, but I can't stand the smell of dirty fish water and fish food. But I also counted on the fact that every goldfish I ever owned only lasted about 6 weeks. I could be inconvenienced for six weeks.

My husband agreed to the purchase with the promise that I would take care of the aquarium and fish. "No problem," I told him.

We had a small aquarium already. It was given as a gift to me at my daughter's baby shower with the explanation that fish were "calming" to little kids.

I let my daughter pick out the fish. She picked 3 and named them "Nemo", "Nemo", and "Spot". (One goldfish had a black spot). The fish lasted in the aquarium for 6 months, which is longer then I had expected them to last. I said to my husband, "Aren't they supposed to be dead by now?"

My husband suggested that we put them in the fountain to eat the mosquito eggs forming on the top of the water. ("It's not a koi pond," I said).He also suggested that they might die, but he wasn't wishing death on them. (read: like his spouse). I threw the fish in the fountain.

The fish thrived in fountain. Okay, that's not entirely true. We lost Spot early on and we couldn't figure out what had happened to him. We had all sorts of theories about possible cats or birds in the area, but no real proof of any mischeif. (or do you spell that mischief?)

A few weeks later, a new fish appeared.

"Spot is back," my husband said.

"That's not Spot," I said, looking at the new fish. "Where's it's spot on it's back? Where has it been? It's not like it can hide for weeks in this fountain."

We thought maybe Nemo and Nemo had a baby, but then the new fish was too big to be a baby. And it didn't look like Spot.


Nemo and Nemo (and the fish that may or may not have been Spot)lasted for two years. Well, Nemo and Nemo did. The fish that may have been Spot disappeared again. Every once in awhile I would throw out, "Haven't those fish died yet?"

My husband took over the feeding and care of the fish. I think he was afraid I might kill them on purpose. I wouldn't have. But I would have claimed innocent if they had met with an untimely "accident".

All our fish are gone as of Halloween. I didn't do it. In fact, I was kind of sad that the fish are gone. Not as sad as my husband was, because I think he had grown attached to those little orange creatures, but still.

My daughter hasn't put it together that the fish are gone. I thought it not right to tell her on Halloween.

We are still trying to figure out what happened to them. My husband whispered, "I think it may have been a cat."

Trick on the fish. Treat for the cat, I guess. Poor fish.