Something just occurred to me. Hear me out.
Josh's main excuse for not doing Fishtank was his obligation to care for puff and not leave the house.
Now, if you're the black sheep of your family and only see them a couple times a yea—nah, who am I kidding—if there's a free waterpark vacation on the line, you probably don't want to miss it.
Hold on though, did a phone call with homedad turn into a heated screaming match because Josh realized he will be forced to stay home on cricket duty?
Maybe there were still a few weeks till Thanksgiving and Josh had an idea.
Maybe he could sidestep any public criticism if puff happened to simply go missing; he would be the victim if anything!
Did Cobra truly love puff? Yeah, I think so. But maybe he was also sick of Metro's bi-weekly animal welfare checks, and being held responsible for something he's since grown bored of after the novelty wore off.
As well-meaning and naive as Cobra is 80% of the time, there is irrefutably a darker, more selfish part of his personality.
Do I think hypothetically he could get extra drunk one night, a week before thanksgiving and deliberately set his bearded dragon loose into the night so he could go down water slides and ogle women in bikinis for a few days?
Yeah, I think so.