Neglected Fish

I'm always talking about the cats: Maddie, Rumi and Doc B. But I just realized I've never told you about "Dwight". Doc. B.'s boss' daughter breeds and raises a variety of finned friends. A few years ago, she gave us a Beta fish, Betty, but she swam into the porcelain light after about two years. When the boss' daughter recently had a population explosion in her fish tank, we did our second adoption. With the unfortunate demise of Betty, I'm surprised she let us have another one.

Dwight seems a bit smarter than Betty (rest her soul). Dwight actually gets visibly excited when he sees me nearing his little plastic home on the kitchen counter - he flits all over the place and almost jumps out of the water in hopes that I'll drop in a couple of food pebbles. I'm pretty good about remembering to feed him twice a day - but I've heard that if I'm not around, he does quite well in getting fed every few days or so. Resilient little guy.

Since we've had Dwight, I've noticed that I've been having to wipe down the kitchen counters more often - they've been mysteriously covered with cat hair. Rumi is not allowed up on things other than chairs, so I wasn't exactly sure how the fur was getting up there. I thought maybe my swiffing wasn't happening enough and that the kitty hair was somehow settling there. That was until recently when Doc B. got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and found Rumi sleeping on the kitchen counter next to Dwight's fish bowl. As soon as Rumi saw Doc B., he jumped down. I guess that's the curious "thud" we hear occasionally as we come down the stairs and walk toward the kitchen. And clearly the reason for the furry granite.

At least Rumi was sleeping next to Dwight rather than trying to eat him for dinner. I'm sure if that happened, there would be no more adoptions permitted.