fair friend

Jonathan won this fish at the fair eight days ago.

It is still alive.

This is a miracle.

When the kids were young and wanted a pet, we tried goldfish. They usually lasted about three days, and always finished with a tearful and traumatic flush down the toilet. "I saw him move!" the kids would yell as the water swirled around in the toilet bowl, "I saw him move! He's alive! SAVE HIM!" (It was for this that Saving Nemo was produced.)

Finally they begged me to stop replacing the dead goldfish. It was all just too emotionally draining. So the goldfish bowl and the net and the fish food sat in a box in the basement for many years, until one day they were sold at a garage sale and I thought we were free of fish forever.

Until Jon came home from the fair with this one.

He won it by playing a game. Usually they set up the games so you lose, but this was was set up so you would win, and then they had goldfish bowls, purified water and fish food for sale at exorbitant prices. Jon just brought the fish home in the plastic bag it was in when they handed it to him.

We put it in a mason jar. Two days later, because it was still alive, I went to PetCo and bought the smallest, cheapest container of goldfish food I could find. It was $1.29.

The secret, I think, to keeping a goldfish alive is to hardly feed it at all. I feed it half of a flake about once every 36 hours. If I remember. It's doing great.

Also, you don't need to pay a lot for water purifying tablets. We just transfer this fish back and forth between a vase and a mason jar. Immediately upon taking him out of one, we wash it and fill it with clean water. Then it sits for about 2 days, out-gassing, and by the time his current water is dirty, the new container is safe for occupancy.

I already feel like I got my money's worth.