Teachers’ pet
Pat Fule
Fule for Thought
Having pets has not always been the easiest thing for the Fules. Over the years, we’ve tried birds, fish, and eventually a dog finally worked out well. Back when Deb was in University, she had two Budgies named Bud and Pil (wonder what the priorities were then!).
She had asked me to watch the birds one weekend, and me being the highly trained boyfriend I was, agreed. I had Budgie experience, because our family had once owned two, named Bluie and Greenie (the Fules were a simple people!). Near the end of their stay with us, I enlisted my dad’s help to clean the cage. I had forgotten just what “pigs’ birds could be! Rather than reach in, drag out the tray and have to touch anything gross, we decided on the best cleaning method … a vacuum. So, we set everything up, hit the switch and began to suck up all the debris.
Sure, Budgies chirp a LOT, but I’d never heard them scream before! They threw themselves against the bars of the cage like prisoners on Death Row! Flapping wings, feathers flying, and two shuddering birds convinced us to kill the switch. The silence seemed to help … they still huddled together, but their shaking eventually went away. Deb DID ask why there were so many feathers in the cage, but my dad and I just said they liked to fly a lot!
After we were married, Debbie and I found the Budgies a good home on a farm (a REAL farm, not the kind people often “make up” in pet situations!). We decided fish would be very easy. They were not, however, that successful! Every time we would buy a fish or two, something would cause them to get sick, and we’d have “floaters” in the tank.
This went on for awhile until we got the water chemistry/filtering just right! In the meantime, we kept on buying fish as replacements. I think the fish in the Strathmore pet shop had heard the “fish rumours,” because they too, huddled in a corner of the tank, as if not wanting to be picked by us! How did THEY know what had been happening? They EVEN seemed to shove one little fish out from their “school” as a sacrifice!
We bought the little guy and I thought there was a little fishy tear in his eye, although with all that water in the bag, it was hard to tell! Luckily, this fish made it, and we were slowly able to have a successful tank.
At our second house (we moved a lot, for awhile!), our tank continued to be successful. One day, however, when my daughter just over three, one of the fish was spied floating upside down. Breanne thought it was a great trick, and asked, “what was the funny fish doing?”
Debbie slipped into “teaching mode” where she was going to use this as a learning moment for Breanne. She explained that our fishy had passed away, and was off to “fishy heaven”! Then we all took the fish outside to a flower bed for a quiet ceremony to bury him (I kept my idea oft joking about fish and chips to myself!). As soon as the ceremony was over, and Fishy was buried, Deb asked if Bree was okay. Bree’s response was “Nudder one? Nudder one?” as she headed back to the aquarium! I think she had gotten over the trauma.
A friend of mine had a similar event with “Fluffy” the family bunny. On a freezing cold January day, Fluffy had gone to the “big carrot patch in the sky.”
My friend had to break the news to the kids, and they had a family moment with Fluffy. The dad had promised to give Fluffy a proper burial, but he soon discovered between the snow and ice, burying Fluffy would be impossible. So, he did what most dads would do. He wrapped it in a plastic bag and stuck it on a shelf in the storage shed. The kids always believed their bunny had a nice burial, and all things returned to normal. Then one gloriously warm spring day, my friend went to the shed to retrieve the lawnmower, only to discover a horrible smell wafting from the open door! He quickly reacted, saw the bag, and realized Fluffy probably wasn’t so fluffy anymore! I’m not sure what my friend did after that … it must have been a speedy burial before the kids came out to play!
Owning pets is a huge responsibility, sometimes there is laughter, and sometimes pain. However, they are companions for us, and we come to love them. Our dog Brodie is now 12, and I can’t remember what it was like, to NOT have him. He’s my pal and wherever I go, he follows (probably because he gets the odd bit of munchies from me!).
A typical evening is spent with him next to me on the couch. If I have the “odd” beer watching sports, he doesn’t judge, and since he IS with me, I never have to say I drink alone (I’ve heard that’s a bad sign!).
(“Fule for Thought” is a slice of life humourous column that will appear in the Strathmore Times, written by long-time resident, town councillor, high school teacher, coach, husband and father of two – Pat Fule. If you would like to get in touch with Pat, you can send him an e-mail at Pat.fule@shaw.ca)