Since I started this thread, I've been wracking my brain trying to come with an unusual pet I had.
So...all this talk about shellfish in theother thread reminded me of my days as a small boy. If someone would have mentioned eating a raw clam back then, I would have come unhinged.
See, I had a pet clam that I named a gender neutral "Lump." I was gonna call it "Itsy," but that gender neutral name was already taken by my goldfish that lived in the same bowl as Lumpie (the endearing nickname I sometimes used).
My aquatic pets seem to get along well until one day when I took the clam out for his daily walk on a leash. When we returned home, Itsy was sprawled in a prone position on the living room floor, the likely victim of a suicide leap from the confines of the bowl. Later that night with damp eyes, Lumpie & I held a vigil for Itsy and then entombed the dead fish with one flush, never to be seen again.
But all was not well. Lumpie apparently took Itsy's death worse than I imagined. Within a week, my dear clam began to sulk, wouldn't eat and refused any sympathy I offered. Our daily walks ended, too. Two weeks after Itsy's demise, I walked into the living room and saw Lumpie languishing in the sand, his/her shell slightly agap in the final throes of death. Minutes later, it was all over. I buried Lumpie in the yard that afternoon and swore I would never own another pet clam.
Now you know the rest of the story.
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Here's a photo of Lumpie taken the last time we went to the beach on his birthday...
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