On Day Three of Pancake’s adventure, we meet her sister and best friend Pep. Pep is a fish, so apparently Pep is adopted, and Pep and Pancake have some sort of arrangement where Pancake doesn’t eat her.

This is a dramatic moment; you can tell because of the tilted angle of the photograph. This assembly is very fish-like.

Next, we also encounter the house that Pep lives in:

Again, I was not sure which wall of the house was the front, but I determined that the fish-shaped flap was the front door. Curiously, there’s no water pump or sign of anything that could support a fish’s above-ground lifestyle. Must be Magic. Hold on to your hats, because there’s more magic coming soon!

You know, I’ve always been intrigued by interspecies friendships and partnerships. From the lowly birds that clean a hippopotamus’s teeth to the fish that befriend the penguins, I find it fascinating. I am also a sucker for heart-warming tales of dogs and cats or deer and possums being snuggle buddies.

In this case, though, Pancake the Penguin has befriended Pep the Fish. This is interesting. It’s like naming your chicken or goat or whatever animal you plan on eating. Once you’ve named such an animal, you’ve shared a bond with it, and it’s hard to do the actual eating when the time comes. The fact that Pep is an adopted sister makes me think it’s Pancake’s mother who initiated the relationship and has passed it on to her daughter.

I could go on and on about the theoretical zoology that goes on behind the scenes of this tale, but I can tell that, biologically speaking, this story is just a disaster in the making.

Stay tuned!

Swimmin’ through Holidailies 2022!