Day 3: Meet Norbert

Name: Norbert Nemo Tressler

Gender: Male

Age: unknown

He's a fish. A beta fish to be precise. Come this April Norbert will have been in our family for a year and I still haven't even mentioned him. He was a gift to dear little Ez from my mother. We went to run some errands and spontaneously got Ezra his first pet. When we asked him what he wanted to name him, he said the only thing that probably made sense to him as a name for a fish: Nemo.

James didn't like the name Nemo. James had just finished reading Harry Potter and Eragon, so the name was either going to be Saphira (or whatever the name of that dragon is) or Norbert (Hagrid's dragon). Since the fish is a boy, Norbert won. We didn't tell Ezra that daddy was overruling his name choice for the fish, so if you ask Ezra, the fish is still Nemo.

I like to look at fish, but I don't like to eat them or touch them or swim with them. I feed him, but even that grosses me out because the food stinks. I do sometimes have to change his water though because James is busy. Well, that has stopped. I refuse to change the fish's water ever again!

Why? I almost killed it the last time I did! See, James scoops him out with his hands and gently puts him in another bowl while we clean his. I, on the other hand, use a metal spoon to scoop him out because I refuse to touch him. Well, I almost squished him with the spoon and then the second he was on the spoon I tried to basically throw him into the clean bowl. He fell. Lifeless on my counter. I started to scream and jump while making disgusted noises. Thankfully James was there at the time to scoop him up and get him into water. The next three days his color basically faded to white and we were waiting for him to die.

(you can't really tell, but this is Norbert nearing death.)

Every time I'd come around the corner I'd walk extra slow preparing to see a dead floating fish. I kept telling James that I felt so badly that he was dying. He would ask why since he didn't think I liked him and I'd say, "Because I feel like I killed him." His response? "Well, you did. I can't argue there." Thanks James, I'm feeling much better. However, Norbert survived. He's a fighter. His color came back over night. And he lives on. And I no longer change his water.

(Clearly his water needs to be changed now, but I just can't do it.)