Mom Creates Costumes for Daughters Pet Fish: Photos

Molly Baker was jealous when friends talked about dressing up their pets in cute costumes — so she decided to make costumes for her pet, a goldfish named Guy Fisheri.

“I just wanted to feel included,” says Baker, a 59-year-old early childhood special education teacher from Chesterfield, Missouri. “Everybody needs to feel included.”

Baker's now 22-year-old daughter, Betsy, bought the goldfish two years ago at PetSmart for 16 cents.

“She was home from college and she wanted just something to take care of. I thought, 'Okay, well this isn't going to last too long,' because they never last."

When Betsy returned to Clemson University, her mother promised to take care of the little guy — and since she has in spades.

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After listening to her friends discuss Halloween costumes for their cats and dogs, she started with a pumpkin costume for Guy. It was such a big hit, she started creating monthly, seasonal costumes for the fish.

“It just makes me smile,” she says. “I like to make people smile and I like the challenge of coming up with something clever.”

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And she loves the reactions she gets when she shares the photos with her book club, her Bunco group and her coworkers. She texts all the pictures to her two daughters and son, too. Her eldest runs an Instagram account featuring the work at @AVeryFishyGuy.

“They think it’s hysterical,” Baker says. “But they do their eye roll like, 'Oh, no.' They're like, 'Mom, you need to get a dog.' But this fish is fine for me right now."

For the fish’s gotcha day, Baker threw a birthday part at which she served fish sticks and goldfish crackers and played Go Fish. She also made a huge fish-shaped Rice Krispies treat.

“Then we played that song 'My Guy,' by The Temptations,” she says. “We just had fun with it. You've just got to have fun with life.”

She sometimes stops and laughs at herself when she’s doing the fish’s photo shoots.

“The funniest thing is when I'm trying to get the picture. I sit eye level, and I have my phone ready, and I just have to wait until he thinks he's either going to get food or flakes, and I just keep snapping until I can finally get him with either a side eye or looking through the [costume's] hole."

In those moments, "I can't believe I'm doing this," she jokes.

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