Don't give an animal to just anyone

[schatze78]

One of my friends from school had a starfish necklace. I always noticed it because I was big into simple pendants at the time, and I always really liked sealife pendants; you couldn't find many at the time that weren't hideous. I asked her where she got it, and she said that her then boyfriend, now husband, got it for her. She didn't remember where he said he had gotten it, and that it was an impulse buy. She said it with a bit of mischief and regret in her eyes, and I asked her what the story on that was. When she was younger, in school they had starfish they had to take care of in class. We had something similar in my school, but it was with hamsters and tadpoles. She was elected to take care of the starfish--feed it, clean the tank, etc. At first she really enjoyed it, but as the weeks went by, she started hating it. No one else would care for the starfish because it was her job in the school. She grew to resent the starfish and one day decided to kill it. When everyone went home, and she was doing her starfish duty, she cut off one of the legs of the starfish and went home in tears. The starfish didn't die. Instead, it eventually grew a stumpy, forked leg in place of the severed leg. She still had starfish duty, but the starfish lived throughout the year. One day when on a date with her boyfriend at the aquarium, she told him the story of the starfish, and he said she was horrible for doing that, and they got into a bit of an argument over it, and then later on in the week he saw that pendant.

Poor little starfish,
With your leg all hacked up.
It's pretty lucky
No one gave her a pup.