A Lesson In Death

Rest in Peace, Red.


Red, our fish, has passed.

His death actually occurred a month ago, but I am just now getting around to writing about it. Why did he die? Not really sure, all I can tell you is that he had not had his water changed in 3 weeks (I'll blame unpacking from the move for my lazy-ness), it was getting GROSS, so I changed it into nice, clean water that I had treated and had set out to get to room temp for two days.

The next morning our dear Red was floating upside down, though luckily I noticed before I let Little Dude feed him.

So then the debate started-how to tell Little Dude. I called Bill, and we discussed the options. Buy a new fish and try to make the switcher-roo? Buy a new fish and then tell him, while he has a new fish to look at? Not get another fish?

We went in circles for a bit, and finally decided to explain that Red had gotten old (I decided against telling Little Dude it was probably my awesome tank cleaning skills that had killed Red) and Red's spirit went to live with God. We decided just being upfront and honest about the death would be for the best.

Little Dude took it quite well, asking if God had a fish tank for Red,(I said yes, a really great one) and asked what we should do with Red. So, I offered holding a funeral and celebrating Red going to heaven with a song.

Red the Fish left us via the toilet and a rendition of "Thomas and Friends", the Little Dude version.

Then, since Little Dude was a little sad after that, I asked if he would like to pick out another pet fish. That perked him right up.

Red the Second joined our family from Pet Smart, and though he is blue, Little Dude declared his name needed to be Red the Second, and so we are calling him Red for short.

So far, my weekly water changing has not killed Red the Second, so we are doing well.

Life With A Fish

So far we have done well with Red the Fish! Two tank cleanings, a little incident where half the fish food ended up on the couch and so far Red is still doing well.

Though I did recently find out that beta fish only live around 6 months-at the most, so I am already trying to think, should our lovely Red end up being belly up one morning, what is the best thing to do.

Little Dude will be 3 in September, so I think he will understand death, but at the same time, I hate to have him lose something he is enjoying so much. And what if he doesn't understand? How do I explain it to him?

But at the same time, I wonder if I would be able to switch in a new "Red" beta and Little Dude be none the wiser.

Hmmm, a little bit of pondering to do, but hopefully Red will be with us for the next 6 months.

And if not, then I guess we will just figure it out. That is what this whole parenting thing is about, right?

Just one day at a time, figuring it out as we swim along.

Red Fish, Blue Fish

One Fish, Two Fish

We have a new pet! Little Dude has gotten old enough that Bill and I decided a low maintenance pet would be perfect for him to care for, so we took a family trip to the local pet store.

And we found this cute little guy:



Since I'm crazy, I agreed that adding the weekly cleaning of a fish tank to the list of things I do around here would be a piece of cake. Actually, I really am excited about it (though let us be honest-it may not get cleaned every single week). My favorite college roomies (Joey and Susan) and I shared a fish tank while we lived together and it was SO FUN. We even had a water frog, a white crawfish guy and some Mickey Mouse fish-yes, those were mine-but I digress.

Anyways, as soon as we had purchased our new family member, (he is a beta fish if anyone is wondering) we decided we would let Little Dude pick out a name for him.

Little did we realize we had opened a can of worms with that one. He suggested names like, Construction Worker Man, Fire Engine Truck, Taco Bell, Red Lobster, (as I mentioned before, my son is an advertiser's dream).

So we did our best to try to guide Little Dude to a name that may not take 5 minutes to say, or involve fast food. We also had to rule out all Thomas the Train names, as that started to lead to conversations about our fish riding on the trains, or the trains visiting him in the tank, and I could only see bad things happening from there.

In the end? His name is Red. He is peaceful, calm and super fun to watch as he fans his tail. Little Dude is also getting a kick out of feeding him each morning and letting the kids watch the fish eat as I fix their breakfast has been fabulous for me. Getting Red has drastically cut down the amount of time the boys spend tugging on my legs, so all the time it takes to clean his tank is worth it.

Here is Little Dude getting Red's fish home all set up. I caught some on video too that I will try to find the time to upload tomorrow-now it seems I need to go, as instead of the nice quiet of nap time, I am hearing hysterical giggles....