It’s been awhile since I posted a photo of my neighbors’ Boxer puppy, Kayla. She now has a housemate, Maya the yellow Lab. Maya is super sweet and pretty darned cute. I love her little forehead wrinkles. It bugs me that they leave her out on the balcony, though. Unlike Kayla, who is more chesty, Maya can obviously slip through the railings.
Also, that tongue? The very definition of cuteness.
It’s always a good day when there’s a new Winston video.
I went out this morning to pick up a package of algae wafers for my pleco. He’s pretty much cleaned the tank, so it was time to get him some real food. As I was opening the package, both goldfish did their “OMG I’m starving!” dance at the front of the tank. Very cute, and a very welcome sight after how sick they’ve been. I dropped an algae wafer into the tank, and both goldfish attacked it. It was gone in about 15 minutes.
Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon, because the poor little pleco didn’t get a single bite of algae. He saw the wafer and got as close as he dared while the big fish were eating, but I suspect he didn’t want to challenge them.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that fish are unthinking or unfeeling creatures. I’ve watched these guys swim their tank together. I’ve seen how they sleep next to each other, touching. I’ve seen the healthy fish gently rest his “chin” against Spotty, looking for all the world like he’s trying to comfort him. Earlier today, I watched as he bullied Spotty into swimming around with him for awhile.
And just now, I heard the sound of clinking glass. I went to check on them, and they were both head-down, searching for left-overs among the marbles at the bottom of their tank. Spotty is eating again.
I did several ich treatments, but one fish still has a few white spots on his tail. Not good. I had to stop, though, because the affected fish started developing black scales. At first, I thought it might be black ich (another parasite), but it doesn’t look at all like that. It looks like ammonia burns, and the symptoms match. He’s lethargic, “panting,” and won’t eat. He just sits at the bottom of the tank.
The other fish, bless his heart, hangs out with the sick one. He occasionally rests his “chin” on the sick fish, in a way that looks for all the world like he’s trying to comfort him. These guys have been joined at the proverbial hip since day one. They swim the tank next to each other, and when they sleep, they’re usually touching. I don’t want to guess what goes on in little fishy brains, but they seem to be deeply bonded.
As far as the ammonia burns, it looks like there’s not a whole lot I can do, besides stop feeding, add some salt to the water, and do a 1/4 tank change every day. It’s strictly wait-and-see. I should remove the sick fish to another tank, since he’s still got a couple of white spots on his tail, but I’m not going to, because I don’t want to stress him further. Maybe if the two goldfish weren’t so attached to each other, it would be different.
How could that possibly be comfortable?
It’s nice to have crazillions of databases searchable from one interface (Ancestry.com). It’s easy to forget that not everything tha\’s available online is accessible through Ancestry, though, even when the state/county in question has opened their databases to Ancestry. Things slip through the cracks.
I looked and looked and looked and could find no marriage records for Henry Meineke and Mary Shoemaker. I found birth records for their children, which listed Mary’s maiden name, but no marriage record. It occurred to me, though, to see if Illinois had their vital records online. And they do. And look at what I found!
MEINECKE, HEINRICH–SHUMAKER, MARIA ANNA–1894-08-23 00K/0070 00010815 MC LEAN
I don’t know why they were married in McLean County[1], but that’s definitely my grandfather’s paternal grandparents. And interestingly, though the Minnesota birth index lists her as Mary Shoemaker, grandpa spelled her name Shumaker, which seems to be the way she spelled it at the time of her marriage. Also, I now have a middle name and a known variant spelling of her first name. Since I have not been able to trace her parentage, this could be helpful. Or not, as it’s a common name. But it’s a new clue, and those are always exciting.
It also narrows down her possible emigration date, as she supposedly came over not long before marrying. Another clue.
And, because I have nothing topical to illustrate this post with, I shall include some random Harriet cuteness.
She is of German extraction, at least!
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1. Actually, this is clue number 3. There’s a gap between the 1870 census (the first one that Henry shows up in, as his family arrived in the US in 1869), which puts them in Tazewell County IL, and the 1900 census, which puts them in Wright County IA. The 1890 census is useless, as most of it was destroyed in a fire. But what about 1880? I can’t find Henry, his parents, or any of his siblings in the 1880 census.
Now I can at least look for him in McLean County IL. And, I’ve got reason to believe that not all of them stayed in Tazewell County. Maybe even none of them. There are several possible candidates in the Illinois Death Index. I also need to take anther look at the Illinois voter records, because I may have enough information to start weeding down those “possibles,” too.
Unfortunately, it’s possible that the whole family was somehow missed during 1880 census. It happens.
red paper boat 