What's in a name?
One of the worse things I have had to do in the course of emptying the house is to find new homes for all the pets. Considering I am not an animal-lover by any stretch of the imagination, I don't know how I've accumulated so many. The hamster was unceremoniously included on For Sale List 5, between the Cherished Teddy Money Box and the 4 M&S Wine Glasses. In an effort to stop people thinking I was completely heartless, I hastily made up a hamster name to include on the list. So Squiggles was born. Let's hope none of my children ever run into the hamster's new owner.
"Ah yes, Squiggles is fine".
"Who?"
The cat is going to my mother's. There's a journey I'm really looking forward to. My mother only lives 10 miles away, but on trips to the vet, the cat is violently sick before we've turned out the road. Wonderful.
Half the fish have been transported already to their new home. I assume they all made it. I'm just waiting for G to bring a cool box in to work (I had three, but they're all sold now) then I can give him the rest. I hope I don't get stopped for speeding that day. "Well Officer, I have a Tiger Barb here that needs to get to work. It's in a cool box here". The Tiger Barb will sit there looking uncomfortable, pretending it has nothing to do with him.
You would think that another pet would be the last thing I'd want. And you'd be right. Unfortunately, S has other ideas and phoned me this morning in great excitement to tell me he'd bought a talking bird. We had birds once before, until someone left the cage door open and they all flew away. I recalled the nightmare of bird food all over the carpet, the constant squawking, and cleaning out the disgusting cage. "Don't worry," said S, happily. "It lives outside, and anyway - the Ayi will look after it." This sounded more like it. "And - the best thing - it talks in Chinese!! It can say Hello, Welcome and How are You!" This is more than I can say in Chinese. I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that it sounds like an ideal pet - it doesn't need me to look after it, it can teach me Chinese, and if all else fails I can call it Char Sui and put it on List 17.
"Ah yes, Squiggles is fine".
"Who?"
The cat is going to my mother's. There's a journey I'm really looking forward to. My mother only lives 10 miles away, but on trips to the vet, the cat is violently sick before we've turned out the road. Wonderful.
Half the fish have been transported already to their new home. I assume they all made it. I'm just waiting for G to bring a cool box in to work (I had three, but they're all sold now) then I can give him the rest. I hope I don't get stopped for speeding that day. "Well Officer, I have a Tiger Barb here that needs to get to work. It's in a cool box here". The Tiger Barb will sit there looking uncomfortable, pretending it has nothing to do with him.
You would think that another pet would be the last thing I'd want. And you'd be right. Unfortunately, S has other ideas and phoned me this morning in great excitement to tell me he'd bought a talking bird. We had birds once before, until someone left the cage door open and they all flew away. I recalled the nightmare of bird food all over the carpet, the constant squawking, and cleaning out the disgusting cage. "Don't worry," said S, happily. "It lives outside, and anyway - the Ayi will look after it." This sounded more like it. "And - the best thing - it talks in Chinese!! It can say Hello, Welcome and How are You!" This is more than I can say in Chinese. I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that it sounds like an ideal pet - it doesn't need me to look after it, it can teach me Chinese, and if all else fails I can call it Char Sui and put it on List 17.
posted by Linda at 1:20 PM
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