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Lessons on Fish Sitting

We fish-sat for Ariel this week while my sister and her family were on vacation.  She's pretty low-maintanence as far as animals go....we just feed her daily and make sure her oxygen is plugged in!  Before I give you today's lesson, I need to give you a little background on Ariel.

Ariel is a survivor.  6 fish were bought as a way to console some very upset children after their beloved dog passed away rather suddenly.  Amy strategically bought the kind that could easily be replaced in case of *ahem* an accident.  She got a really nice tank that plugs in and everything (rather fancy for $3 fish!)....and the next morning, 5 of the 6 fish were sucked up into the filter while Ariel swam happily around in her big tank.  Yes, Amy got her money back, but that did not remedy the fact that now these young children had not only lost their dog, but 5 of their 6 fish as well!  Turns out, you can only have one fish in that kind of tank.

Anyway, Ariel is a survivor.  She's lived almost a year alone in that big ole tank and seems quite happy to be its only resident. 

So today's lesson is:  don't leave Ariel in a hot car for 5 hours while you're at a baseball game.

Caleb and I met Matt at a minor league baseball game with the youth group.  We drove there with my sister & crew, so I headed over to their house with Ariel in tow. 

I had to put her on the opposite side of the back seat because I didn't want Caleb to kick her tank.  While doing this, I thought to myself, oh man, would it be bad if I left Ariel in the car while we went to the game!  I asked Caleb to remind me that Ariel was in there.

10 back-up attempts into their small parking area later, I loaded Caleb into their van and we headed out.

We were over the bridge and probably about 30 minutes away from their house when Amy said something about somebody dying.  I don't even remember the context of the phrase.  That was all it took for me to gasp and yell, I left Ariel in the car!!!

Of course, that's all it took for Sara to start frantically chanting please be alive, please be alive, please be alive the entire ride back to their house.  Good thing Bruce is a police officer because we were hightailing it back!

When we arrived, I tore out of the van, ran to my car, and--much to my relief--Ariel was still happily swimming around!  We took her inside and got her all plugged in again before heading back to the ball game...and we weren't even late!

So, this story of Ariel the Survivor ended happily.  I think I'm going to start calling her Iron Fish!

I'll be fish-sitting again next week for a few days, but Ariel's owner will be with me this time.  We won't plan on taking Ariel on any trips...

Comments

Anonymous said…
I feel like I need to leave a smart comment...but I just can't think of anything fitting...so I will just thank you for watching Ariel and once again I'm thankful you remembered her when you did and not much later. Also, I think we are just going to leave her at home while we are gone this next time....it's not very much time and she should be fine.
Julie said…
I can't believe you don't trust me! I make ONE mistake in the many times I've fish-sat in the last year....jeesh!

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