denied pets once again
February 12th, 2006 by Lawrence David
having successfully tended to our plants for the past couple of weeks, christina and i have decided to get some more interactive pets. of course, a dog or a cat would be ideal, but would also violate the terms of our lease. i’ve had some bad rodent experiences too; the last one i had (childhood) escaped one night and gnawed through some water tubing in our kitchen, flooding our entire house and forcing my family to move into a hotel for a week. the insurance agent didn’t even bother investigating too closely – it was obvious that no one could invent a claim that ridiculous.
the remaining set of putative pets consisted of fish and a child. hah.
so off we went to “petsmart” today. we had already picked up a snazzy fishbowl from the christmas tree store (who knew they were still open in february?) sadly, we were forced to pass on the fish, since our apartment gets colder than the minimum temperature at which most fish live. determined to bring some kind of pet home, i decided to at least get some snails. christina and i actually spent one summer as snail farmers in baltimore, successfully turning a pair of the critters into a 4-dozen strong colony by the summer’s end. we can handle snails.
yet, i had underestimated how diligent the petsmart employees were. when we asked a sales associate to pick out two snails for us, we were immediately grilled about our tank setup: “do you have a heater? how about a filter? how big is your tank?” dumbstruck, christina and i failed each question and were deemed unfit to raise snails by the associate. as we left the store, my guilt quickly subsided, however. “what the hell?” i thought. i wasn’t trying to adopt some orphan; i was trying to buy a $1.50 invertebrate. that woman must really care about the pets she sells.
whatever. we’ll try petco tomorrow, where i’ve noticed the store clerks have weaker attachments to the pets they sell.
those petsmart employees really care about all the animals they sell! but could you sell an animal to a person knowing you are dooming that animal to death? nevertheless, i’m sure you’ll succeed in your quest for snails and a fish. i don’t think i know anyone our age more determined than you are, especially when it comes to pets!