46 pages • 1 hour read
What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything?
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Stories 5 & 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to animal illness and death, euthanasia, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide.
Story 5 Summary: “Pets”
Eve Hubbard loves pets. Her first pet was Chase, a dog who loved to chase animals. Eve was sad when Chase died. They buried him in the garden. Eve’s parents do not want to get another dog, but they do allow her to get other pets. Many pets don’t live long, and she buries them in the garden.
Eve gets two kittens named Angel and Shadow. She lavishes love on them, but they have some behavioral issues. Angel bites Eve if she is late with dinner and attacks Shadow if he eats first. When Eve gets the kittens a catnip toy, Angel monopolizes it. After Eve gives it to Shadow for a while, Angel seems to intentionally trip Eve and even kills some of her goldfish.
Angel falls ill despite Eve’s best efforts, and the vet suggests putting Angel out of her misery. Eve holds Angel in her arms while the vet administers the lethal injection. Eve is not allowed to bury Angel in the garden, and as time goes on, Shadow behaves erratically and searches for Angel.
One night, Eve is awakened by a noise and finds Shadow in the garden, looking at a strange white cat up in the tree.
