Sherman Snapshots: You don't know Jack... yet!

After reflecting on the longevity of our office fish-friend, Jack, we asked his primary caretaker Alison Kimball (also known for being our Admission Office Coordinator) to guest blog and tell you a little more about him. If you'd like to meet Jack (and the rest of us), schedule a visit to Sherman!

When I first began my job here in the admission office in October 2004, I mentioned to my co-workers that I had an aquarium at home. Their response was, “Good, we’ll let you take care of the fish.” There was a betta fish named Simon that was in a nice fish bowl complete with a healthy plant.

Happily, I took charge of the betta and learned very quickly that they need to have an airhole to breathe at the top of the bowl. Why? I killed poor Simon the first time I changed his water by not leaving that air pocket. Poor fish, just suffocated.... Word quickly spread around campus that I was “a fish murderer,” and overcome by guilt and fearing I would be fired my first week of work for failing at my new duty, I decided to buy a new fish for the office!

So, I went to Pet Smart and found numerous bettas to choose from. I liked this dazzling blue & maroon colored one, purchased him and named him Jack Flash, as once in his bowl, he was swimming all over the place! Jack has become my charge over the years. He even goes home with me over Christmas break, and I am pleased to say that Jack has lived a very happy life with us since October 2004.

A betta doesn’t require much: a few pellets of food and some fresh water every two weeks or so. They say an average life span of a betta fish is about 4 years, and when brought to a pet store, they are already adults 6 months – 1 year old. So, Jack has well exceeded his life expectancy, and he still lives everyday in his bowl on the counter, just waiting for people to walk by, look at him and maybe give his bowl a little tap. Imagine what we must look like to that little fish! Jack has served us well, our Piscean friend, may he be happy until the day he can flash no more and swims up to that big pond in the sky!