O.C.B.T. Part 1 - Pets

A.K.A. Only Child Brown Thumb Syndrome

When I was a kid, my uncle bought me some guppy fish. While attempting to clean the bowl one day, I dropped a few on the floor, panicked and proceeded to step on them. They didn't make it under the weight of a six year old's body.

In high school, I had a fish tank in my bedroom with a a few goldfishes. A few days later, I woke up and found one of them belly up. I was so skeeved out by it, I didn't even bother scooping it out. I just left it there! Apparently, that screwed up the pH balance and killed off the rest of the fish in the tank. Traumatized at this point, I was too scared to tell my parents, but would have problems falling asleep with the dead fishies floating just a few feet away from my bed (until my mom finally discovered the incident a few days later).

Needless to say, I have never had a real pet my entire life. I don't think Michael has either. I can't even keep a plant alive! It must be dominant trait in only children. But we both would like a dog some day... me more so than him, but specifically a French bull dog. So when my friends Allison and Tommy went away to Mexico for 10 days last week, I volunteered to doggie-sit for their two dogs Elroy and Ellie.

I was nervous I'd lose them or kill them... but other than a few puddles of pee here and there and some mushy poop to pick up, it was really fun! It's amazing how smart dogs are - they can hear and understand the word "treat" about 20 blocks away!