Figuring out what to give my mom for Christmas isn't too hard, we pretty much like the same things, but this year I wanted to give her something she would really love. And the thing my mom really loves (after her family) is animals...are animals...what is grammatically correct here? Anyway, she is a friend to the animals.
Lots of people say they love animals, myself included, but my mom loves them more than us. For reals, once she saw some baby ducks trapped in a storm drain at a strip mall and she rescued them by calling animal control and waiting until the ducklings were safely removed. And that was when I was a little girl, before we had cell phones to call for help and whatnot.
In her old neighborhood there were a bunch of feral kitties so she took to trapping them, paying to get them spayed or neutered, and then releasing them back into the neighborhood. But she felt bad for them so she put food out for them all and ended up adopting a couple to go with the ones she had rescued from the shelter. My dad loved that, fierce feral kitties hiding in the guest room! Even though she doesn't have any cats right now, just two dogs, we all know there's a crazy cat lady waiting inside her to get out.
What else? Oh, she leaves baskets nestled between the eves of her house and the pergola over the patio for doves to nest in. When she sees a gopher in her garden she is equal parts irritated and delighted (which is crazy). She has an eagle eye and spots every animal we pass on the road, deer, foxes, wild turkeys, coyotes, you name it, she sees it! And she gets so excited. Every single time.
Plus, her dream vacation is to cruise to Alaska and watch for whales.
With all this in mind, I decided the perfect Christmas gift for her would be a betta fish. A betta fish in the cutest little live biosphere ever! It came out so so adorable that I wanted to share it so you might gift one to the animal lover in your life, or maybe even make one for yourself.
