A fishy tale

Back at Christmas time, our Bible study group had a Christmas party.  We all pulled names and then we exchanged gifts.  Every other year, the kids were free reign, this year we had the kids pull names, too.  I had no idea that that would translate into Jared getting a one gallon fish tank, complete with two fish and an algae eater.  I would have been miffed, if it weren't for the fact that Jared's smile didn't leave his face for DAYS.  He wanted to stare at them, and feed them.  In fact, he often wanted to feed them far more than  they could have eaten in a fish year. 

Then it happened, as I knew it would..... I killed one of his fish.  It was completely innocent, in that all I wanted to do was give them clean water.  I thought I had it all under control until I had to put the fish back into the clean tank.  One of the little buggers wiggled himself out of the bowl he was unhappily swimming in, and down the sink drain.  I was unsure how to proceed from there.  Did I just run water down the drain and hope that it would swim out into the sewage system, or did I turn on the garbage disposal to ensure that my house would not turn into a smelly, fishy morgue?  I opted to run the water for 15 seconds, and then I turned on the garbage disposal.  I really hope that the fish made it out to sea before the blades of the garbage disposal chopped it up.  Either way, my house stayed smelling fresh, and full of boy smell.

I was sure that Jared wouldn't notice, after all, he still had one healthy fish and an algae eater in his tank.  I was wrong, yet again.  He noticed, and continued to say "Mama, fish all gone?" with his hand out to his side like he wasn't sure.  I felt guilty, terribly, terribly guilty.  One of my friends took some time out of her day, and brought Jared another fish.  He was elated.  Unfortunately, that fish died the next morning.  It was a sad farewell, only this time, it was burial in the toilet bowl.  (Jared never quite looks at the toilet the same way anymore.)  He STILL had one fish and an algae eater.  I figured it would have to do.  Besides, we are leaving soon, and we certainly cannot take a fish with us.  But then, the last fish suffered the same fate as the other two.  We found him floating a couple weeks later.  Again, burial down the toilet bowl.  At this point, I was simply hoping that the algae eater could hold on and that Jared could be happy with the lonely AE.  The AE is still hanging on tight, but Jared did not handle the lack of fish very well.  For a couple of days he would simply stare longingly into his fish tank and shake his head no.  It was almost like he was accusing us of letting his fish die one by one. 

We decided to let him get another fish, even though it would have been easier to simply disassemble the tank and pretend he never had fish at all.  We brought him to the pet store down the street, and into their fish room.  His eyes were the size of saucers and he just couldn't decide which one(s) he wanted to call his very own.  We would ask him, and he would simply stare around and around.  Finally a nice pet store employee brought my starry eyed toddler over to the Betta fish.  He couldn't contain himself, he reached out for the cups, stacked up on one another, pushing aside the brightly colored greens and blues, until he found the cup that contained the purple fish he knew was his.  He looked up us and said "FISH!".  It was love at first sight.  I paid the extra $0.39 for the cup, and let Jared walk out of the store holding his fish. 

He hasn't stopped smiling since.  The fish seems to be doing well, and the AE........ he is holding on too!

 Proudly holding his new fish

 New fish getting acclimated to his new home