The Story of Berry, Silvia, and Oscar

On Saturday, amidst the heavy falling rains, we ventured out to the local pet shop to buy 2 goldfish and a snail.  Annabelle respectively named them: Berry (as in Blueberry), Silvia, and Oscar (who we refer to as Oscar the Snail so as to distinguish him, or her (I wonder), from Oscar the Grouch, another popular character in our house).

The idea to seek out 2 goldfish and snail came from the “Pets” edition of these old Columbia University preschool books on science experimentation for young children.  Apparently, and I suppose this makes sense, owning a pet, like a fish, gerbil, turtle, ferret, cat, or dog, is a way for children to learn about the care of a living being.   I paged through these books as I sat on the bottom steps of our stairwell trying to determine how our family should spend the morning, which I’d hoped would be outside at the farmers’ market and our town’s children’s fountain.  To my surprise, when I offered up the suggestion to my husband, who seemed determined to spend his rainy day in the rainy day fashion of doing nothing, he eagerly agreed, and so, the 3 of us set out into the rain for a short drive to the pet shop.

Annabelle and the young girl working at the store selected the fish, and as an after thought, I asked whether a snail would do well in the same bowl with them; the sales person seemed to think so, and that’s how Oscar came to join us.  I’m thinking he’s a functional additional (a natural water filter and grime eater), as well as being pretty to look at.  Mostly, Oscar just hangs out, suctioned onto the side of the bowl.

At home, Annabelle colored and pasted the following fish bowl and fish, which I found and printed out from the net, while I read a bit more about the care of goldfish.

What I learned surprised me: a single goldfish thrives in a minimum of 10 gallons of water, while adding just one more fish can require up to 50 gallons of water . . . caring for goldfish turns out to be more of a responsibility than we’d anticipated.  So, I think that over the next couple of weeks, we’ll search for a larger fish bowl, add some plants (so the goldfish can hide now and then and won’t feel stressed out), and we may even need to look into purchasing a real filter since goldfish apparently produce a great deal of waste.

But, I say that Berry, Silvia, and Oscar are well worth the care they require. Each morning when she wakes up and each time we walk into our house, Annabelle tells us that she needs to go and visit with Berry, Silvia, and Oscar; she climbs up a small step stool that we’ve set up beside the table top that holds their fish bowl, feeds them every other day, and daily talks with them about her goings on and their swimming (which is what they do).

And so, Berry, Silvia, and Oscar have come to live in the Monte house.