dragon and lyra

I'm pretty sure we're the worst pet owners ever. Ok, maybe we've just had bad luck.

Yes, we've had yet another pet funeral.

Actually, a double pet funeral.

Juma's two green anole lizards, Dragon and Lyra, died within a couple weeks of each other. Juma figures it was a communicable lizard disease. I doubt that, but whatever it was, we'll miss watching them chase crickets.

We always have a little funeral to help Juma cope and grasp, in his six-year-old way, a little bit about death. This time, we buried them in our backyard under a homemade gravestone.

(Juma thought the digging was a blast.)




Goodbye Dragon and Lyra!

new pet and new house

I discovered that my phone, the phone-computer connection cord, my computer, and I were all in the same room and the same time, so I finally downloaded some pictures. See how lazy I am?

So here's Juma's new pet habitat:



and his new pet, Leo the Gecko:




Also, I snapped a couple pictures of our new place, but just outside and the main stairwell, since taking any pictures inside our apartment requires me to clean up a bit first. Again: lazy.

I know there aren't great pictures, but they give you a small idea of what the building is like.

the changing of the pets

Juma's pet snake, Sam the garter snake, died a few days ago. He was a good, quiet, non-stinky pet (until he died--pee-yuuu!). We "returned him to the earth" on Friday. Goodbye, Sam the Snake. We'll miss watching you eating rosy red minnows bigger than your head.



And as per our tradition, we got a another pet immediately. Now we have a house gecko named Leo. He lives in the same tank as Sam did, but fancied-up to fit a tropical lizard. (I told Juma that Leo means lion, but that only made him think the name was more appropriate for a lizard. Who can fathom the mind of a six-year-old?)

I'm obviously really good at promising to post pictures and then not getting around to it, so maybe I won't even promise this time. I did at least take a picture of the new lizard. I'm just too lazy to get the picture off my phone right now...

new fish

We finally went out and bought a new pet fish. When Nemo died, Juma was adamant that the new fish look just like Nemo, and be named Nemo, too. But it looks like he's moved on: this new one is still a betta, but is red and named Lampy Lamp.

Nemo's send off

Juma's fish Nemo held on for about a week, but died on Saturday. Since I had already mistaken Nemo for dead previously (how stupid can I be to not try poking the thing with a net before telling my 4-year old his pet died?), Juma had already gone through the grieving process, and was not upset when the fish did actually die. Instead, he was ready to "take Nemo back to the ocean, where he comes from."

Justin and Juma took him to New Haven's Long Wharf docks a replica of the Amistad on Long Island Sound. (The Amistad trial took place in New Haven.)


There they said goodbye and plopped him into the ocean. Justin said, "We'll always remember you." Juma still wants to get another betta and name him Nemo, but we'll wait until after our holiday travels.

the (un)death of Nemo

Juma's long time fish friend, Nemo, a member of the Beckham household for two years, died today, Wednesday. Freeing him from his confined tupperware dish we bought him in, we gave this blue-and-black Siamese fighting fish a filtered tank, a plant, and a name. The then two-and-a-half -year-old Juma enthusiastically named his first pet Nemo; it was the only fish name Juma had ever heard. Within two days, clever Nemo learned to dance near the surface to request food. He didn't stink, bark, shed, scratch, mess up the floor, mark his territory, cause allergies, or try to sleep on our faces in the middle of the night. He was a good pet.


After his bath tonight, we told Juma that his pet beta had died. He first denied that Nemo was dead, insisting he was only resting. But reality set in, and Juma became angry. When we said he could get another pet if he wanted, he countered that "Another pet will just die too! I don't like pets. They just die." I tried to explain that even though death and missing his pet is sad, those two years we did have with Nemo were fun and happy, so it was worth it.

Next, Juma wanted to keep Nemo anyway, but explained the his body needs to return to the earth. With some crying and talking, he decided he wanted to take Nemo to the ocean, "back where he came from," say goodbye, then go to the pet store and get another one just like him and name him Nemo too.

[crying] "I want to get another fish, okay? 'Cause I like fishes. One just like Nemo."

Thursday morning Update:

Nemo: I'm not dead yet! I want to go for a walk. I'm soo happy!

Woops--Nemo's not dead. But I'm pretty sure he's really close. He's been lying on the bottom of the tank lethargically for several days, moving only rarely, and not dancing for food anymore. We discovered he wasn't dead when, in preparation to take Nemo to the beach for a funeral, Justin tried to get the fish out of the tank with a net. Juma was all ready to say goodbye and wanted to take him to the ocean anyway, but we told him we'd better wait, since putting him in the cold salt water would kill him.

snappy

Juma caught a baby snapping turtle at a nearby river-park. We let it go again after a few hours. Juma was so upset to see his new friend go that he cried and cried, "I want to give him a goodbye hug!"

first fish

Juma caught his first fish yesterday.

Well, that's not entirely correct. I was the one who split the worm in half with my fingernail, squished its slimy, gooey body onto the hook, cast it into the river and handed the pole to Juma. He then reeled it in and caught a six-inch perch on his very first try. I then stuck my fingers in its mouth and removed the hook. I guess I'd call myself the guide; Juma never even got his hands dirty, he just did the fun stuff.

We then said goodbye to our new friend and let him go back to his family in the river. It was fun to see how excited Juma was to catch a fish.

Next time, though, he's getting worm guts on his fingers too.