Thursday, November 05, 2009

Throroughly Traumatized

Yesterday (or the day before) I noticed that James's fish was sideways and motionless on the bottom of the tank. I dropped in a piece of food and it swam (in an exhausted/only half of it moves kind of way) aiming for the food and gave up before reaching it's goal. I haven't seen it move since, and I have been checking. So tonight, I broke the news to James that his fish had been sick and died. There were tears and more tears by all, especially as we sang hymns and eulogized Skipper the fish. He was a good fish. When it was over, I explained that we must bury him (to much protestation- Can't we just pretend he's alive and leave him there? Do you remember what happened to the Jack O' Lantern?!) So we agreed that although we could not leave him in his tank, James could keep him in the freezer until he's ready to bury his pet.
I brought Skipper upstairs and offered to scoop him out, but James wanted to do that. So I gave him the spoon and prepared paper towels and baggies (to preserve the sanitation in my freezer- I hope) and as he scooped out the fish, it gave one half convulsion and the kids declared it a miracle. Skipper lives on, for a few hours or days I do not know. I just feel bad that the kids have longer to contemplate his demise.
*Update: Skipper gave up the ghost this morning, right after the kids left for school. I am not looking forward to this afternoon.

2 comments:

Jodi said...

Oh shoot!! Your kids crack me up. Poor little Skipper!

mindy said...

just flush it while they're gone, they might not even notice. Atleast mine didn't.