dailyprompt-1900 – Stories That Are All True

Daily writing prompt

What animals make the best/worst pets?

My life has been taken over by the cold virus. There is nothing anyone can do, because I am not bad off enough to do anything but complain. I hurt all over and there is Vick’s VapoRub on my chest. I could stop most of the complaining with a hot shower, so that is where I’m headed once you find out that I like keeping animals in water as decoration and because I crave taking care of something that doesn’t need me too much. I am saving that kind of love and attention for my service dog. It seems unfair to get a small dog or cat knowing they’re a placeholder for another animal. My sister and I have talked about all kinds of things, from a turtle to a betta fish. It’s all I have time to do, look.

I have a shower curtain with a turtle on it, and right now that is pet enough. That being said………….

The best day of my little autistic life was receiving Othello, my Black Moor goldfish, when I was nine. The worst day is learning that you are not rescuing a goldfish by putting it in a bowl. They grow quickly, and they basically fold in on themselves; their guts twist to accommodate being a big fish in a small pond. Now, I will not keep goldfish at all, because there is no place to return or dump them when they get too big for your setup. Ohio Fish Rescue does not have enough room for everybody on earth’s failings as a pet owner, so buy smart. I’m thinking a small community aquarium, even at five gallons. That is plenty enough for a betta fish, his plants, and his cleaning crew. Males are flashy, so I want a boy living in my house (in this case).

I’m going to be buying smart because my service dog is a big investment, and I have three women telling me that I need a pet (well, Supergrover said I needed a dog and a gun… while I appreciate the sentiment, she’s the trained shot and I cannot hit the broad side of a barn – mental illness says “don’t tempt me into holding my beer” even with training)….

“I know me. We’ve met.” -Matt Borum, circa 2003

Fish seem to be the best answer for now. I do not want a cat because I will not clean up after it. I will buy disposable litter boxes and throw them out every day because I hate the smell so much I will throw up. I am a strong enough man to admit that while I love cats, the sensory experience of cleaning a litter box is for someone who lives with me that owns a cat. I’m not capable. I say this because my sister said, “why don’t you get a cat?” I had to explain to her that Dana took pity on me long ago and let me trade out cleaning the cat box for other chores…. but not until she saw actual vomit on the cat shit. Therefore, I do not want to go back to disposable litter boxes and hoping that another girlfriend sees me for the pathetic cat owner I am. To me, solving the problem is not air freshener or a magic litter box that doesn’t have a smell, because they don’t exist.

The solution is not getting a cat.

This is why my Serbian housemate’s cat was such a problem to me. She was allowed to keep a cat in her room. Periodt. But she liked going to Serbia, and she told my landlady that when she was gone, the cat was my responsibility. She was going to leave for a month and just not tell me. No one in our house would have let a cat die, but it was a shitty thing for an owner to do.

I have enough trouble taking care of my own problems, but today has been a victory. Evey Winters, writer and advocate, said she’d work with me to bring The Sinners’ Table to life. She’s the first trans person I followed on my professional account, and she lives an hour from me.

Life is strange. You come up with an idea in 2024, but it takes flight when it has permission to breathe. Someone slighted me, and The Sinners’ Table was the answer. Everyone is a traitor to something, most often themselves. Find community. Find love where you think it isn’t.

Peer support from actual peers. The one who will do Lent with you instead of just Easter. In the end, it’s all fish.

What animals make the best/worst pets?

All pets make the best and the worst depending on the person, and that’s due to wanting one kind of pet because it’s cool and really being another pet’s kind of owner.

For instance, if you don’t like to walk every single day, don’t get a dog that’s barely under the weight limit at your apartment complex because it’s adorable and “you can’t help yourself.” A dog depends on you to be out in the weather no matter what several times a day. Shelters are full of that kind of regret.

For me, the truth is in the slash with aquariums. They’re the best because they’re the most beautiful, especially salt. I also like the type of maintenance that aquariums need, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. However, they’re the worst in terms of startup costs and ongoing maintenance, because if something goes wrong with one fish, there’s a domino effect. I also fit the tank to the pet. I won’t put even one goldfish in a 10 gallon tank as a permanent solution. Goldfish grow, and if they’re in a container too small, their guts and bones will start to squish to adjust to the size. If you give goldfish the space and time they need to grow, you’ll never spend more than 15 cents for fish. It’s also really hard to tell a fancy goldfish from a feeder fish when they’re young, so I’ve had a black “feeder fish” with golden flecks grow into a bubble eye of some kind, and several goldens with dual fantails.

The care on goldfish, however, is relentless. They are nasty fish, and if you don’t have a live aquatic solution (and I can’t even think of plants that can keep up with goldfish shit), you’ll be cleaning the tank at least every six weeks, if not more often. Because other breeds of fish cause so much less waste, I’ve stopped keeping goldfish. But it’s a great hobby when you do find those very expensive fish among those meant to feed predatory fins.

If I ever start a new aquarium, I’d like to put live plants in it this time, because you can make an ecosystem that runs itself, you just trim the plants. The water stays clear on its own, and there are a ton of ways to do it.

Aquascaping videos on YouTube are why I know so much about construction now. My algorithms started leading to bigger and bigger landscapes…… from aquariums to tiny houses to Perkins Brothers, foureyesfurniture, and Bourbon Moth (my three absolute favorite content creators on YouTube). But liking these types of channels started with Paul Cuffaro, then an 18 year old kid who built ponds in his parents’ backyard. He’s a Florida YouTube legend now. I still watch Cuffaro, I just like furniture and house building more now.

So when I tell you that fish are a blessing and a curse, I know quite a bit about which I speak. But it adds so much to a room and the work is so tedious it’s zen, truly, especially snipping live plants like you’re Mr. Miyagi. But it’s a rhythm you have to get into, and a chore that’s not fun until you get into it. Hard to make yourself start, hard to make yourself quit because once you start, it must be perfect, because you need to feel the zen inside yourself before you can rest.

I often feel that working on an aquarium is in fact rearranging my own chi. A water change is a breath of fresh air, moving a cave, for a fish, is a brand new cave. I keep it in mind. Blog entries are often mental water changes, the zen of cleaning an autistic mind.

I am very much raking sand every day, here, with you. When you read, you pick up a rake and leave your own impressions. My thoughts mix with yours, so maybe your path is circular in reading just as mine is in writing. Yet we arrive at the same place.

You have reached the end by diving in. I have reached the end by coming back up.