Pets are Family

One time, Roger called me like 30 times. My Mobile phone was on Mute but I was awake. I was grieving. Then, Roger calls my Landline (he is one of the fewest Ugandan friends who knows my Landline).

ROGER: Leah, are you okay?

MLN: We lost a Family Member.

ROGER: Give your sister’s MOMO. I wanna send Mabugo. By the way Leah, who died?

MLN: Mr. Gold Fish. I just flashed him down the toilet.

ROGER: You can’t be serious? You are mouring over a Fish?

My dear friend didn’t give me a chance to tell him the story. What had happened is Tasha had gotten a dog (Theodore) & a cat (Pumpkin) but she wasn’t taking care of them. So, we were getting frustrated. We asked her to get a smaller pet. She got a Rabbit (Mr. Brown). Still no chance of her buying food for her pets or cleaning up after them.. We told her “we are gonna take all your Pets to the Animal Rescue Shelter.and give them up for adoption.

TASHA: Okay, get me a Fish. I promise to take care of my Fish.

So like all malleable parents, we got her a Fish (Mr. Gold Fish) and kept her dog, cat & rabbit.

She loved that Gold Fish profoundly. One time there was a snow storm and the house was cold. She upped the temperature in the Fish Tank so that her Fish would not be cold.. **That is how she fried her Gold Fish**

I went to wake her up for school and noticed that the fish was floating in the tank.. I grabbed it and flashed it down the toilet!! Then woke up my daughter to prepare for the School Bus. She only noticed when she returned from school that her fish was not in the tank. Then, hell broke loose.