R.I.P. Fish

If you are a follower of my blog, you'll remember the fish incident we had over Christmas break. Never again will we volunteer to host the class fish over school break as we almost killed the one we were watching. We blame all that on Picky Picky, she likes seafood and was looking for a snack.

Anway, Gavin attended a birthday party last week where the "take-home gift" (goody bag kind of thing) was GOLDFISH. OMG I was really hoping Gavin would not see this but of course he did and had to get on line to get one (or two in our case; guess he smiled real nice at the kid's mom and she gave him an extra). So we go home with 2 little fish in a Ziploc container. Scott was oh-so-thrilled when we got home. Francesca was ecstatic, as were the cats! SNACKS, they said! We kept the fish in the plastic container overnight and went to PETCO in the morning to get them a real home.

We came home with a simple tank, some rocks and a lighthouse for the inside. Mommy put the kibbosh on anything too fancy, "because fish die" I said. Wow was that ever prophetic! Scott assimiliated the fish into their new home and all was well...for the next 6 days that is.

Fast forward to last Friday night. We all come home from work/school and the fish are fine. We went out to dinner and then to Kohl's (Mommy needed a new outfit). Got home, walk upstairs and Gavin goes into his room and turns on the light.

"Daddy, COME IN HERE NOW!!! DADDY!!"

One fish had sunk to the bottom of the tank. Uh-Oh...Scott scoops the fish out, shows it to Gavin and says "Gav it's dead. The fish died".

Oh my I have never seen a more heart-breaking and pathetic scene. Scott explained to Gavin and Francesca that when he was younger he would flush his fish down the toilet when they died. Scott had alot of fish over the years, he's an expert on fish. Gavin literally hit the floor in the bathroom, started to sob and covered his eyes with his hands. Francesca started pacing and crying herself. It took everything we had to say goodbye, flush the fish, get the kids into their pj's and calm them down. We thought that it might be nice to all get into mommy and daddy's bed and snuggle. So there we are, in bed, and Gav says

"Mommy, could you please 'say something' about Fish #1?? We need to pray...'In the name of the Father...' "

Oh my, I almost could not get through the "Fish Eulogy" without laughing. Tears were streaming from my face, and not because I was upset. I talked about how Fish #1 was a faithful pet for the 6 days that we had him/her and that him/her enjoyed swimming in the beautiful tank with his/her friend Fish #2. We finally got them into bed and to sleep. We went to bed. The next morning I was woken up before my alarm went off. Why, you ask?

"DADDY!!! MOMMY!!! It happened again!!! Fish #2 is DEAD!!!!"

More tears. More flushing. Tee ball followed by a trip to PETCO to buy 3 more replacement fish. Scott washed out the tank. Fast-forward to Tuesday. 2 of the replacements went belly-up. Literally. One bigger, stronger (we hope) fish remains. Gav is taking all this fish death in stride. He tells us every morning "The fish is alive! It made it throw the night!!"