Up For Adoption
The move is coming along at a quicker pace now, and the biggest thing setting our speed now is the painters. How soon they can get here will dictate how soon our house can get on the market. We’ve got one more painter set to come give us a bid, but we already accepted an estimate because most painters have been really booked out. In the event that the last painter can paint sooner, we can always rescind our booking and move to the new guys. One painter literally never got us an estimate, and the third painter we saw was a complete scammer though- we doubt that the fourth estimate will be fireworks.
Anyway, we need to gut the house in preparation for the painters: nothing on the walls or ceilings and more furniture needs to get in the storage facility. I’m spending nearly every waking hour on it, and Master Pravus is working on it when he isn’t at work. We’re making loads of progress, but it’s not easy and there are loads of considerations.
Case in point: The aquarium.
We can’t take the aquarium with us when we move, and it will be a big problem when the painters are here, so getting rid of it sooner rather than later is in our best interest, but this is not an easy thing for me. Never in my life have I gotten rid of an aquarium, and only once have I needed to surrender a pet. That pet was Serenade, and it was because after trying everything in the book she was completely too feral from being hoarded. She shouldn’t have been given to us for adoption, and I still feel guilty about giving her up every day. It feels like a failing. I hated and still hate it so much. I hope she found a wonderful home and is happy as a barn cat or something.
Still, giving up the shrimp and my snail isn’t about them not being good little pets! They are wonderful and I love them so much! I love their marimo balls, and I love feeding them their Shirakura shrimp food. They literally will fight over the shrimp cake and they have gotten so strong over the years that we have had them! They’re adorable and they literally look like they just fly in their little tank. Fargoth is such an adorable little snail, and I love him so much. He was my first snail, and I have read that nerite snails only live 1-2 years. Well Fargoth has lived over four and he didn’t seem like he was (forgive my horriffic pun here..) slowing down. Grin.
Nevertheless, transporting several amano shrimp and a tiger snail across the continent and keeping them alive seemed.. Impossible. And as a pet owner it’s my responsibility to keep them alive. So I called up the only fish store that I actually came to like since moving here. I don’t want to link to them. I’m an adult blog after all, and I just asked (None of my friends have aquariums so I didn’t want to ask them to take on one!) if they would.. Take our shrimp and our snail.
“You. Wait you want to sell us your livestock?”
“No. I wanted to know if you took adoptions. I’m moving out of the state and thought I saw on your Facebook page that your did.”
“Well, not as a rule, but did you say amano shrimp? Amanos are so cute…”
“Yes, I have six amano shrimp! And one tiger nerite snail…”
“We don’t usually, not anymore, but amanos are so cute! Yes, I’ll take them. But what do you want in return? I can do a store credit or something maybe..”
“Oh no. I just want to make sure they’ll be OK. I’m moving out of state and can’t figure out a way to bring them with me. Can you just find someone to take care of them? I don’t need anything in return..”
“Yes! You can bring them in. It’s totally fine!”
And we then had to fish our six tiny clear little shrimp with a silk net and then hunt down Fargoth (he was the easy one! LOL!) Then we drove an hour away and dropped them off. The woman who was on the phone was so happy!
“Ooh look how cute they are! I love amanos! And LOOK at how brightly colored the shell is on your nerite snail! Nerite snails are so underrated.” As we were leaving, she brought them over to the tanks and was trying to choose which tank was the right one, and she was so cute picking it out. “Let’s see where your new home will be….”
I cried before we got there, and I cried when I got to the store. I cried when we left the store. This is one of the worst parts of owning a pet. Sometimes there are things that are completely unavoidable in pet ownership. I really hope that whoever gets Fargoth and Co. takes the best care of them and that they live out the rest of their days happy and in comfort. They really are good little buddies and they were great to me.
I am wondering if I can maybe save my marimo balls though. I have maybe six or so, and I know they don’t need a lot of care, so I’m thinking maybe if I get a mason jar with a good lid, and keep them with us we might be able to take them with. ::Hmmm:: The other tank plants are goners, though. ::Sigh::
Master Pravus says that when we are done moving, we’ll restart the aquarium, but driving away from the store it was sad. We’ve had Fargoth for four years and their calm presence in the house was so peaceful. I will miss them all so much.