The Fish in the Sink

Back when it was warm here (a couple of weeks ago), my kids were playing outside, going back and forth between the house and their favorite picnic spot near the pond.  I heard one of the kids come in the door and yell to their dad to "come identify this."  In my house, that almost always means something dangerous.  I decided not to overreact and just let Dad handle this one.  I heard them talking in the bathroom and then I heard him say "It's a perch."  So there's a fish in my house.  Perfect.  And then everyone went on about their business like there was absolutely nothing wrong with this picture.  There's a fish in my house.  Not in an aquarium, in my bathroom sink.  My 10 year old nature freak/child prodigy then explained that it looked like a turtle had eaten part of the fish and it was probably going to die anyway so she caught it (with her hands) and brought him in to die.  How nice of her.  Still, there's a fish in my bathroom sink.  Ever the wildlife activist, Dad says to just put him out of his misery instead of letting him suffer.  At this point, I'm yelling from the comfort of my chair, "I don't want to hear about this."  Apparently my wishes went unnoticed.  Dad and fish-catching daughter then had to discuss what the best way was to kill the poor fish.  Keep in mind that I'm getting louder from my chair..."Do you have to discuss this?"  Finally, they decided to just put the fish back in the pond.  Sometimes I wonder if all families are this strange.  

Fish-catching daughter is taking Hunter's Education this week.  Legally, she doesn't have to have it to hunt until she turns 16 or hunts alone but, being the overachiever that she is, she decided to take it now, at 10 years old.  To celebrate, Dad is taking her turkey hunting this weekend.  I'm not opposed to hunting anymore, I know that it serves a purpose.  I'm not a fan of wild game though and usually anything killed or caught goes to friends or family.  Both my girls killed their first deer last winter.  I thought I was going to get by with one girl who didn't hunt.  Not so lucky.  As soon as her sister killed a deer, the middle one decided she could too.  And she did, 24 hours later.  I wasn't surprised.  Once her sister does something, she feels the need to do it too, and usually does.  They are quite the pair.