Tuesday, September 16, 2008

RIP...almost

We've had a near death experience in our household this evening. Princess, the male (try telling Dylan he's a boy and not a girl fish, there's a fight you just can't win) betta who resides in my daughter's PINK bedroom, is not doing so well.

I went downstairs tonight to put some laundry away and noticed Princess laying on the bottom of his bowl. I tapped on the glass...nothing. I shook the bowl a couple of times...nothing. I just knew the damn fished had died on me. I called Bryan down so we could get our stories straight. I was suddenly in a panic, how do I tell my 4 year old that her beloved fish is dead.

Bryan told me just to flush it and she wouldn't even notice it was gone. I knew she would though, the second she went to feed him tonight. So Bryan in all his infinite wisdom marched upstairs and told Dylan:

"Sorry Dylan, your fish Princess is dead."
"But why daddy?"
"It just happens, actually it happens a lot with fish. They just die."
"BUT I LOVE HIM!"

Insert hysterical tears (Dylan's) and my heart break here. I pick up his bowl to flush him and the little bastard nearly jumps out of the bowl. He sinks back down to the bottom and starts doing that fish out of water breathing.

I went upstairs to tell Dylan the sort of good news. Her fish wasn't dead...yet. Yep, it's only a matter of days before Princess meets the white porcelain god. Somebody please help me.

5 comments:

jae said...

Aww Jenni! That is tough. When our betta died I pretty much had Bryan's approach. I also played up that our fish was sick and that played on his sympathy a little.

Best of luck. Betta's are little bastards when it comes to dying... it takes FOREEEEVER. Hope it's over soon.

Alicia said...

Wow, that's really tough. I have no clue how I'd go about dealing with that, especially seeing as he was dead then not. Let us know how his finale goes. Ugh.

Homeslice said...

maybe princess just has the fish flu and will recover :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Let me know what you come up with... D.Jones and Cooper encountered a dead squirrel on the sidewalk last night and the consensus was that he was "sleeping". Guess you can't use that one, though, since it would be tough to explain why sleeping animals get flushed. Might make for a hysterical bedtime routine.
Hopefully Homey is right and Mr. Fishy is suffering with a flu bug. :)

cathy said...

Awww Jenni!! Poor Dylan. I have zero advice for you since my boy is completely sadistic and actually probably enjoys killing his pets just a little bit. Noah does like being part of the whole funereal process whenever we have to flush a fish down the toilet. Maybe Dylan can say some kind words about Princess whenever he does kick the bucket?