Pet Carrot

Remember the sad tale of our frogs who croaked? I held onto their tank and stashed it in the laundry room (I have a bit of a hoarding problem, which stems from an unnatural emotional attachment to objects. But it's mostly under control, because I do get rid of things when I, A: grow tired of them being in my way, or B: watch an epsiode of Hoarders and freak out that I'm heading that direction). Last week, one of the kids filled the tank with water and stuck a carrot inside (did your preschooler ever bring home a Ziploc bag of water with a baby carrot inside as a pet, and they were supposed to sprinkle pepper in the water to feed the carrot-fish?). It's been sitting on the kitchen counter for about 5 days, and I noticed that the water was getting murkier every day.

Finally today I decided to dump the water and the carrot. I figured the murkiness was caused by the carrot decomposing or something, you know? There was also a definite, putrid smell today, emanating from the tank. I noticed as I dumped the water into the kitchen sink that it was littered with lots and LOTS of decaying fragments of frog food. What the...? I had a quick flashback to Stephen King's Pet Sematary before realizing that Dash and Violet probably hadn't come back as undead, evil frogs. That's just crazy. No, one of the kids had been feeding the carrot frog food. So bizarre, right? Do you know how many times my kids willingly and without parental pressure fed the frogs in the 7+ years we had them? MAYBE 10 times. But apparently they fed a carrot daily.

So, my point in sharing this fascinating tale with you is that if you're looking for a low-maintenance, low-guilt-inducing pet, maybe look into the carrot option. You probably wouldn't even need a tank--a cup or bowl or Ziploc bag would be perfectly adequate. But keep the frog food hidden away, or you'll have a stinky mess.