An Ode to Little Guy

Several weeks ago, I came home from a tough day of teaching to my very first pet! "Little Guy," as he became known, was a bright blue, beautiful beta. He was special. Not only because he was honestly a very beautiful fish, nor even simply because he was mine. He was a delight because my roommates cared enough about me, knew I was having a tough day, and just decided to bless me with him. What a delight!

Coming home to a new pet was only the beginning of the adventure, though. Then came learning how to take care of a pet -- in China. Some of you know about my track record with pets in China. For those of you who don't, let's just say it involved a rabbit that wasn't even mine ending up either being dissected at the Medical University or eaten by some students. I'm not sure which. I didn't ask.

But Little Guy was mine, so I needed to learn how to care for him. So off I went to go buy him some food. Turns out, the rabbit was easy: lettuce and carrots from the local vegetable stand. Fish food in the US? Also easy: a bottle of pellets or flakes. Fish food in China? Now this is entertaining.

From what I understood (and granted, my Chinese is limited), I was supposed to go buy Little Guy some food every 5 days or so. A lady on my vegetable market street sells it, so it was easy enough to pick up whenever I bought vegetables. And at only 2 mao for a bag, it wasn't going to break the bank. (Two mao is about 2 or 3 cents.) But here's the entertaining part: what I was buying for Little Guy to eat was actually little live plankton! And every 5 days or so, I was supposed to dump a whole 2 mao worth of these reddish colored squirmy things into Little Guy's bowl, and he should have plenty.

The first time I fed him, I was a little nervous. Sure seemed like a lot of food to give him at once. So Little Guy and I made a deal that he wouldn't eat too much. It was fun to watch him go at those little reddish things, and, as he had agreed, he filled up on them and then stopped. No overeating.

Three days later? Not sure what happened. The little reddish things were still there, still squirming around, still ready to be eaten. But poor Little Guy passed away. Bad water maybe? Too small a bowl? Just sick? Not sure.

But it was fun while it lasted.

This past week, I came home from a similarly difficult day of teaching to a clean room and a little plant! My roommates are amazing. And hopefully I won't kill this one. :)