Of fishtanks and goofy cats...

I've had a fishtank for a little over a year now. Nothing really exotic, just some little Neon tetras. We started out with 10 of them, a bottom-feeder, and one of those black goldfish with the big bubbly eyes. We're down to five neons and the bottom-feeder.

The goldfish only had one eye. The other one was deflated, probably in a fight with another goldfish. Jack named him Winky. We let Winky go in the pond last summer after we found out that goldfish poop is toxic to other fish. Might explain why we went through 3 bottom-feeders rather quickly - they consumed lots of the stuff. I couldn't stand the thought of flushing a perfectly healthy fish down the toilet, so we decided that the pond behind our house would give him a fair chance to grow into a big, happy goldfish. Anyway... back to the fishtank.

Like I said, I've had this tank for a little over a year now. The neons are quite happy, and the bottom-feeder stays hid. We named him Fugly to begin with, but decided that wasn't an appropriate name to be calling out in front of little ears... "Mamaw, what does 'Fugly' mean?" Um, yeah... so we've changed his name to Fergus. He doesn't care one way or another as best I can tell.

Harry, my big grey fluffy cat without a brain, has just discovered the fishtank. It's in the same place it's always been, he's just finally noticed it. Silly cat. He likes to sit right next to it and watch the fish. He'll sit at one end of the tank and peek through the glass. The fish, on the other hand, will all run to the other end of the tank and huddle under a rock and just wait him out. Fergus has started going *to* the cat, though, like he's challenging him or something. I think in a fair fight, Fergus would win. Harry's a bit of a wuss. Jack caught him peeking through one day. He snuck up on his hands & knees to the other side of the tank and popped his head up. Scared the cat witless.

Harry hasn't tried to go fishing yet, but I imagine that will be coming soon enough. I've told him that if he ever starts putting his paws in the water, I'm buying some piranah to go in there. He just looks at me and blinks uncomprehendingly. There really is no intelligent thought going on in there. It's a good thing he's got a very friendly, affectionate personality and he's gorgeous. If he had to rely on his smarts for his survival, he'd never make it.