Goldfish watch

I’VE never been a big fan of pets.

I put this lack of enthusiasm down to my childhood. My mum used to say that with four children, there was no room for any other animals in the house.

However, I have read many good parenting articles that suggest it’s good for children to have contact with pets from a young age. Melissa’s mum had obviously read something similar because a few months ago she decided to buy Harry a fish tank with all the trimmings. All I had to do was supply the fish.

To be honest, goldfish seemed like a reasonable compromise. Initially, Harry was very interested in them; he would press his nose up against the tank and make ‘O’ shapes with his mouth to mimic the fish, which he named Orange and Red (because of their colour).

Harry was also determined to find out what happened when he shook the tank, which meant that poor old Orange and Red had to be under constant surveillance.

However, this initial enthusiasm quickly waned and looking after the fish fell to me. “I’m not cleaning them, that’s your job,” was Melissa’s judgement on the matter. So apart from the weekly water change, things have settled down to the point where I thought Harry had actually forgotten all about them.

But it seems Harry now has a renewed interest in the welfare of Orange and Red. When I returned home from work the other day, Melissa told me that Harry had fed them in the morning. Unfortunately, he’d then tried to put a banana in the tank (which thankfully has a lid on it) because, he said, they were still hungry.

Needless to say, the surveillance operation is back in full swing.