been way too long

I haven't known what to write about, so I haven't written anything. Here are a few updates on my life and snippets into my thoughts as of late.

I have recently acquired several awesome pets. One of these is a plecostomus (better known as an algae eater) that's 15 years old and 18" long. Beast! The other new fish are a gourami, which I once owned and sent away and now took back, and a 15-year-old raphael catfish who's spent his entire life in one castle. They all now live in my fish tank, and they're all still happy and healthy. : ) The new fish used to live in a 55-gallon fish tank (same size as mine). Mrs. Rahn wanted to take down her tank and wanted her fish to go to a good home, so I got them.


Once her tank was empty, Mrs. Rahn and I loaded it up, and I took it home with me. Because I needed a home for some bearded dragons! : ) Some friends from church, Paul and Lorraine (owners of Savage Dragons) breed these little guys and asked me if I'd like to have a few. So I now own Lieutenant Dan (he lost a leg), Dave Grohl (Joel's really into the Foo Fighters right now), and Flashbang (just a great name)


So there's that. And the other thing I wanted to talk about is my dream. I am just now realizing that my new pets and the dream that I'm going to talk about are quite connected. My dream is to own a pet shop. I want to have a heavy focus on aquatics. I want to sell as many locally bred pets as possible (lizards, fish, bunnies, etc.). I also want to focus very heavily on adopting versus purchasing pets. If I were to have cats and dogs, I would want them to be only available through adoption. My vision is that I would partner with a local animal shelter. My shop could serve as a foster home until someone wanted to adopt the animal, and the shop could act as an agent for the shelter (so we would have the ability to adopt out pets). I don't know why I love animals so much; I just do. I hope I never lose that passion.

Something that has made me feel less ridiculous/less alone in my affection for animals is the 10-year-old boy that I babysit. He loves animals just as much as I do, I think. He recently got a pet gerbil. I had all the supplies he needed (I had a sad experience with gerbils about a year ago--darn cats), so I sent them his way. He went one afternoon, and when he returned from the pet store, he had chosen to adopt. So proud of him! Of course, he was probably just thinking, "It's $4 to adopt or $12 to buy... yeah, I'll adopt." But last week on the way back from school, I asked him what he wanted to do for work when he was older. His response: "I don't really know. If there's a job where I can just take care of animals, I want to do that, I think." And he's requested to go to "animal camp" this summer. I don't know that that exists. He's also looking to get involved volunteering with an animal society in the area. The long and short of it is... If I someday get to own the pet shop I've dreamed up, I will hire him to work there without hesitation.

And now, Joel... He's so great. I own two cats, a big ol' fish tank, three bearded dragons, and a soon-to-be dwarf seahorse tank. He lets me have all of that. So great. TANKS, BAYBEE!