OK, I’ll admit it. I’m one of those people who has to have pets, even though my apartment lease strictly forbids them.

However, I don’t really consider a gerbil and four goldfish “pets.” Apparently, neither does my rental company, because they know full well about the animals, and I haven’t been kicked out yet.

My gerbil, Marble, has the best of everything. She gets as many chew toys as she needs, the best food, bottled water, and a weekly dust bath. She even gets cheese, crackers, vegetables and fruit from my “human food.” Whenever I pick up food for the office, the cardboard drink carrier is torn to shreds over the course of the next few days by the furry little creature.

However, the real insanity of recent days has been my goldfish.

My four goldfish, Creamsicle, Chocolate, Reese’s and Tiger, live in a lovely tank in my living room. Creamsicle is the oldest at about a year and a half, and Tiger is the youngest – about a year old this month. Creamsicle, Reese’s and Tiger are fantails, which are beautiful goldfish with elegant double tails. Chocolate is a black moor, which is a kind of fantail. However, black moors are bred to be a velvety black color, and have “telescope eyes.” Their eyesight is not great, and they tend to be slower and lazier than ordinary fantails.

Recently, I began to notice Chocolate’s telescope eyes were getting a little too “telescopey.” Many who have had pet fish can probably relate – he was getting a disease called “pop-eye,” where a bubble develops under the fish’s eye and it pops out from their body.

Therefore, on my last day off, I headed to PetSmart to see if they had the medication I needed. After plenty of complaining about the price of medication for a fish that’s nearly a year and a half old, of course I purchased it anyway.

The stuff smells terrible. Every morning last week, I gagged as I poured little silver packets of powder into the water after removing the carbon filter (also not a great-smelling piece of a fish tank). All the while, I was hand-feeding (yes, hand-feeding) Chocolate at the bottom of the tank, because he couldn’t or wouldn’t swim to the top.

A little overboard, yes, I admit. However, I am happy to report Chocolate is looking more lively, and hopefully he and the others will live for many more years.