The Fish Saga

I was asked to write a story something short to fill a spot.

I could write of either my most embarrassing moment during work or my worst mistake as a parent. Well those were both tough.

Now since I really don’t want the world to know my most embarrassing moment I thought writing a mistake would be easier as everyone sure makes those.

So as I think of what mistake I could write about, the ones you keep pushing in the back of your memory come alive and you push them back again. Find something simple.

Well don’t worry if you can’t think of any, there are many people out there to remind you of ones you have made.

My story, I am sure, will be familiar to all. It is one of those mistakes you make over and over and over again and wonder just why you are doing this….. Pets!

Well I am not so sure my mistake involves the pets my children wanted or the pets I wanted so I will leave that up for interpretation in the end.

It started when the girls were 4 and Pappy Dave gave them each a water frog and a fish. They were fascinated by them. And we did well with them. But we had to move and de-clutter and so gave our frog and fish to a cousin to watch and hopefully never to be seen again. And we didn’t. I have never asked how long they lived or if they are still alive. Yep horrible owner I know.

Well this year the girls wanted a Betta Fish. Gee what harm could this do really? So, ok, pick the one you want. We bought the fish, the tank and the food and they were ohhh so happy. They did actually feed their fish nightly and helped change the bowl when needed. So the responsibility of a pet seemed to sink in.

After only a couple weeks Sarah’s fish passed away. She was devastated. She awoke to find him floating and cried while waiting for the bus hours later. She hoped when she got home that God would have taken him to heaven. At least we did not have to suffer a funeral. She was content just thinking God plucked him right out the bowl and took him up to heaven. No need to spoil the moment with the flushing of the toilet knowledge after all she is only 6 and very sensitive.

A few days later she says she is ready for a new fish as Ashley kept bragging her fish was still alive. Ok what harm will it do? Well Ashley so nicely tells me she wants me to have her fish and she will pick out a new one for herself. How sweet. What the heck they are like .99 cents. So they are content with the new fish in the bowls in their rooms. I put my new pet on the mantel in our family room. It is so high you can hardly see the fish but where else do you put it. I come home the next day to find my fish completely gone from the bowl.

Ok now I completely understand Sarah and Ashley trying to tell me over and over again that God just took him up to heaven while I search the floors to see if for some reason it jumped out of the bowl. Well I never found him so I guess miracles can happen.

Now you would think the story ends there but not to be. The following week we are heading off to school. I had to run into the girl’s room for something only to find my beautiful white kitty Willows reach in and grab Ashley’s fish and put it in his mouth. I have less than 2 minutes to get that fish and get what I needed and get out to the bus. And so the chase begins. By the time I caught Willows “Red” has ceased to exist.

Geez now what do I do. Well just what any parent would do right. Before the kids get home you find the exact same fish and replace it. I also purchased better Betta fish bowls with lids that sealed better. Ok. This will work. The only thing Ashley noticed differently was Red was now much larger and so changed his name to Pig a Lig thinking he ate so much in one night he grew.

Well Willows paced by that tank and I would constantly have to scout him away and remind the girls to keep the door shut. We get through two days, yep two whole days. Girls are in bed, fish fed, gum band around tank just in case, lights out and door shut. Well somehow that night a teeny tiny monster found its way under Ashley’s bed. Believe it or not amongst all those toys were there is maybe an inch of space a monster lived. I am told he is slightly bigger than a stink bug so she can’t just flick him away so she leaves the door open so that she has the hall light along with the two night lights on in her room. I can totally relate as I myself am afraid of the dark and keep all the lights on.

So it is 2 in the morning and I am going to sit down and finally relax when I just hear a slight noise nothing really loud or unusual but just something. I go upstairs to find Willows has chewed the gum band, taken off the lid and now has yet Ashley’s new fish in his mouth. I grabbed him and luckily he dropped “Pig a Lig”. Phew close call. Put him back in the tank. Took Willows downstairs and gave him a stern talking to put him in the basement and actually told the cat to think about what he did wrong. Remember it is 2 am. I move the fish bowls out of the girl’s room and put them on top of our bathroom medicine cabinet which has nothing the cat can climb up to get to and sits like 6 feet on the wall. Temporary fix till I can figure something out.

The next morning the girl’s notice the bowls gone and ran to find out what happened. I just mentioned I thought the fish might like the bathroom light since it is on all night. O, Ok. They bought it. “Pig a lig” was swimming but barely. I think he was injured and only had one fin so kinda swam funny. Well I will worry about it later and didn’t think a thing about it till we came home. He looked.. well, miserable. Ok I am not a fish mind reader but I think he had to be in pain. So I called a few friends to ask how do you humanely euthanize a fish. Sure easy for them to say just flush him, but he is still alive I can’t just do that.

I’ll figure it out tomorrow when I figure how I am going to handle one having a fish and the other not as I was not going to buy another one. I started laundry when I heard it, Sarah running out of the bathroom. Talk about running for a life. I ran up both flights of steps as fast as I could but kitty’s well they are faster. Before I could get up the two flights Willows had climbed up the shower curtain walked across the rod and jumped to the top of the medicine cabinet and had gotten poor Pig a lig and well while he was at it he got Pink.

We now have no more fish. Many empty Betta Fish bowls and many .99 cents later but no fish. We will not get any more fish either.

So the moral of this story is how many times will you make the same mistake over and over thinking you are doing the best for your kids before you have to finally fess up and tell your kids Willows ate your fish. As you await the expected meltdown you are instead faced with.................................. Geez Mom didn’t you know kitty’s ate fish and birdies.