Sunday, June 10, 2007


Why goldfish will never rule the world
"Somebody's coming! Quick! Let's all hide under the snapping turtle!"

Incidentally, you'll notice that, since Howard moved out to the back deck for the summer, he's grown a lovely crop of algae on his back and tail. He's enjoying the larger pool and deeper water, and the occasional goldfish, since he's in training for next summer and the introduction of harsh cruel reality in which people don't come by and drop chunks of meat in front of your nose.

Despite being forced to catch his own dinner, however, he still expects good things from human beings, which is a matter of some concern. I was bringing him in at night because of the risk of raccoons and skunks, but he became so comfortable with being handled that I quit after a week and, instead, put a screen over the pool at night and hope anyone trying to break in makes enough noise to rouse the dogs.

Here, Howard is watching me hang laundry, or at least he was until I saw him looking up and paused to take a camera out of my pocket. (His pool is on the wooden raised platform where the laundry line runs to the barn, so I was standing over him. And I always have a camera in my pocket in case something newsworthy jumps out in front of me. Or in case I find a small turtle staring at me.)

I cropped this picture a little wide so you could check out the design on the flower pot that currently serves as his cave. I don't think he'll get that kind of decor out in the wide, wild world, either.


2 comments:

Sherwood Harrington said...

Did he spend the quarter, or did you filch it from him?

ronnie said...

Poor goldfish. Not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. When we kept goldfish, I read somewhere that they have a memory span of about six seconds; at Christmas time I'd watch them swimming around the aquarium in circles and imagine what they were thinking:

"OH LOOK! A CHRISTMAS TREE!...OH LOOK! A CHRISTMAS TREE!...OH LOOK! A CHRISTMAS TREE!..."

But do I gather from this post that Harold is actually "hunting" and eating his own food now, ie the goldfish? That's a pretty impressive feat given his speed... I'm guessing the fish have to be dumb enough to swim right past his beak. So let's see... fish are very stupid, and Howard has one rapid response - snapping. Makes you wonder if there wasn't a conscious designer after all ;)

ronnie