Turtle or goldfish?

I've always been scared of animals. Anything that isn't human. Well to be truthful, human beings are scarier than those seemingly scary animals. 

I am so different from my siblings, of which all of them cat lovers, or well, animal lovers. I don't think they are scared of animals as much as I do. I even had to ask my housemate for help when a moth came flying into my room. Pfft... Don't get me even started on snakes or other reptiles *shudder*. 

Why am I even scared of them? 

They are so scary! And that I'm afraid of getting bitten! (by a moth? yeah right! Hey but it can happen!) 

When we were young, my siblings kept cats, a bird and even a pair of terrapins. One of the terrapins  died and we had to release the other one to the river as it kept getting bigger without enough space for us to keep it as we were living in a small apartment at that time. And I had never ever, even once, placed the terrapin on my palm because I was scared of getting bitten, LOL. During universities, I was also scared of the white lab mice when we were conducting the experiments. My fearless friend would be the one holding the struggling, wriggling mouse as I injected adrenaline onto its vein..

Well, I'm still scared of animals! Or insects! Except cockroaches. The non-flying ones. 

Then just this evening, out of the blue, it seemed like an epiphany. The idea just popped into my head. So many things happened for the past few weeks. I had officially turned 27 *yawn* and Fatin got transferred to Perak leaving me here with my books as companions in GM. I have no one to talk to anymore. Well, I have friends, but we're not that close for me to open up about my feelings. So sometimes I just talked to myself. So sad. 

Anyway, I saw this instagram post of my friend placing a cute little terrapin onto her palm and I feel like I need to have a pet. And I feel like having a pet tortoise/turtle/terrapin! The idea is so cool, right? I'm thinking of having just one turtle. The turtle does not need any companion. I am that turtle's companion! And off I went researching about 'having a turtle as a pet'. 

There are two things that ticked me off. 

1. Turtles can bite. They could get aggressive. And they could bite you, accidentally or not. And they said it hurts immensely!

2. 'Turtles commonly carry the Salmonella bacteria on their outer skin and shell surfaces'. Source: FDA. 

Frankly speaking, I'm more scared of Number 1 than Number 2. 

I had already been thinking of buying a small aquarium where I can carry it around, with a place for my turtle to bask on. I'm actually thinking of putting it under the care of my colleagues at the hospital any time I went for a long holiday abroad. We could have fun taking care of the turtle together. 

And just imagining the turtle walking slowly and languidly, awww, doesn't it look cute? 

I just have to replace the water, and buy the liquid to purify the water or something. And I just have to feed it with vegetables. I intend for my turtle to be a vegetarian. But then, what if it really craves for meat and bites my finger instead? 😱 Never mind. I'll buy it a chicken sausage. 

I'm going to name it Flecatus. I shall not explain about the origin of this name. It's a secret. 

And well, mulling about these two things that made me reconsider to have a turtle as a pet, the idea of keeping a goldfish materialized into my head. 

A pair of goldfish. So it won't get lonely. So biased, right? 

There are several good things of owning goldfish. 

1. Goldfish doesn't bite. Or if it does, it couldn't possibly hurt that much as compared to a turtle bite, right? 

2. They are so pretty! I could picture their gold scales gleaming brilliantly in the crystal clear water as they swim merrily within the vicinity of the aquarium. 

3. I only have to buy fish food. No need to buy a chicken sausage or vegetables. 

4. Keeping fish is regarded as therapeutic. At night, I could put a light in the small aquarium and just stare at it until I doze off. 

The minus points are:

1. I need to buy an air pump/water filter. I found out that an air pump is necessary to 'stir' the water, producing more oxygen for the fish to breathe in. But those fishes in the pond of my home doesn't need the air pump 24/7. Perhaps I should only turn on the air pump at night! So that there would be enough oxygen for them in the morning! 

2. I couldn't think of any, LOL.

So, it looks like keeping a goldfish is easier! 

So, yes! I think I'm going to buy a pair of goldfish! And I'm going to name them Celsius and Fahrenheit! 😎

YAAY!

UPDATE 19/1/2018: I still do not get myself a pet of any sort. LOL