Angel Fish

We went away for about 10 days to spend Easter in New Orleans with my family. Our babysitter Jackie was used to taking care of our cats, Princess and Luna, and promised to spend about an hour with them each day. We missed them but knew they were in good hands.

But we’d never left the fish before.

In fact, the fish—maybe 7 of them, 8?—are new enough that I don’t even know their names by heart yet. Sometimes I think I may never learn their names, most of which are elaborate and decidedly un-fishlike. Well, to my way of thinking, anyway.

To my daughter Evie, who named them, “Stephon” suits the shiny black-and-white-flecked carp to a T. How could he be called anything else? They are, officially, Evie’s fish, so who was I to argue? She did tape a fish-name guide to the wall above the 10-gallon tank, which sits on the former “crafts table” in the kitchen. (The dining room table now doubles as the crafts table and in a very short time has become delightfully paint-splattered, but that’s another story.)

We had a wonderful trip down South, not a drop of rain, our days full with food, family, food, food and more food. But I have to admit, I texted Jackie more than once to check on the fish I can’t yet name by heart. They got through the 10 days without us just swimmingly. Turns out, Jackie is an expert at fish-sitting!

Evie’s real name is Evangeline, by the way, a name that, to my way of thinking, suits her to a T. She’s an angel of a girl for sure and, now that I think about it, quite fishlike. Her guardian angel gets a real workout when Evie is anywhere near water; she can’t get enough. I guess that makes Evangeline an angel fish!

Tonight it’s time I concentrate on learning some new names.