As a child Dominic often went fishing with his dad and grandpa. He hadn't been fishing for over 20 years when he picked it up again this summer. It took a little while, but he got the hang of it again. The children are used to Dominic coming home with several blue gill. The other day he called during a break at work, and Elisa asked how many fish he'd caught. Sadly, he hadn't gone fishing that day. The kids like to chase each other around with the fish saying, "Fishy! Fishy!" in growly voices. Even Makayla, at 18 months, runs around growling and laughing with the older kids.
By the time Dominic gets home, the fish are usually dead. Sometimes the fish still try to breathe or weakly flop around until we put them in the freezer. I joke that we should throw them in the pool to keep it as a pet. We never did, until now. Dominic caught a decent sized crappie today. Not only was it still trying to breathe and flop, but it also looked around at us. This time when I said we should keep it, Dominic actually put it in the sink!
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| Black crappie, our pet fish for the evening |
We all watched it throughout the evening. It would swim a couple of laps, float on its side, come up to the surface like it was trying to eat, and then do it all again. The kids loved it. They got so excited every time it swam or waved a fin. Now they really want a pet fish. We told them that it probably wouldn't survive the night (it looked pretty pathetic). After the kids went to bed, we put the poor thing out of its misery and stuck it in the freezer. We also said that we will get a beta or goldfish if they really want a pet fish. Besides, we bought a rabbit a week ago; we don't need another new pet so soon.
