The 'Ish

Robbie loves his 'ish. He feeds him every night. He points to him every morning. And, if you ask him what a fish says, he will very proudly say, "Gulp." I know, I know. A fish really says, "Glub", but I say, "Gulp" every time Jake the Fish eats a piece of food. Robbie is very attached to Jake, and I'd like to think that Jake was attached to Robbie.

Yes. I said "was". Being the responsible pet owner that I am, I changed Jake's water last night because it had gotten uncomfortably low from Cookie Monster drinking it. I figured if it got much lower, he wouldn't have any room to swim and would die. And, since I accidentally boiled my fish when changing their tank in college because I didn't wait long enough for the water to go to room temperature (this is the first time I have publicly admitted that), I let Jake sit in a mug on the kitchen counter overnight. This is what I found this morning.



And, for the close-up...



I can only assume that a cat wanted some water and knocked over the mug. I don't think she (yes, I'm assuming it was Grover since she loves to hunt or Cookie since she was drinking the water) meant to commit fishicide. But, when the water was knocked over, and the fish came flopping onto the counter... Well, what was she supposed to do?

I explained the situation to Robbie this morning, and he took it well. He was concerned about the missing fish, pointing at the place on his dresser where Jake lived for the past five months, pitifully saying, "'Ish? 'Ish?" I have a feeling he didn't quite understand that a cat was the culprit here because he was loving on them five minutes later.

Robbie and I took a field trip this afternoon to Pet Supplies "Plus" (don't even get me started on the name...), and Robbie picked out a new 'ish. It's not the same as Jake or Fake Jake (last night's casualty). But Robbie doesn't really seem to care. He proudly held the bag with his new fish in it at the store, saying, "Gulp! Gulp!" Somehow, I think he'll pull through. I'm just hoping that I will.