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I never cried harder over the loss of a pet, than I did for my sea monkeys. It may sound strange, but it's true.

At age 8, I desperately wanted a hamster. All my friends had hamsters, and I had never had a pet of my own, much less one that was inside. What I got instead was Sea Monkeys.

While it wasn't the fuzzy creature I had hoped for, when I saw the package, I was thrilled to my young core. The box feature families of human-like aquatic creatures, cute cartoon representations of what could appear out of the package of flakey dried life-forms. Astonishing.

I could not contain my excitement. I quickly went through the set up process, but in my haste I skipped a valuable step. I did not boil the water, or purify it in any way. I used tap water. In essence, I sealed the horrible fate of those little critters before they even had a chance.

They didn't die right away. No, they swam around for a few hours, maybe a day. I don't recall how long they survived. But then the inevitable happened: they floated lifelessly to the surface.

I cried my little eyes out. I was so sure that my parents wouldn't think me responsible enough to ever own a mammal if I couldn't even care for simple shrimp like creatures. It was a very sad night for me, indeed. But I learned a valuable lesson of responsibility from those events.

I eventually got my hamster, and am happy to say that it survived to live a normal hamster lifespan. However, I'll never forget those little sea monkeys and their representative cartoon happy faces. To me, they will always be looking at me with big eyes, asking me for help, asking me to learn how to nurture.

And I did.

Learn more about this author, Courtney Shay.
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