A Fish Story

This crazy lady that I know decided that it would be a good idea to give away Beta fish at her son's Great Barrier Reef birthday party in May. I don't know what she was thinking. First of all, it was a good thing one party guest didn't show up because we ended up needing an extra fish when after an hour one of the fish who had already been chosen and named had to make a visit to the porcelain throne. Then she she spent weeks with her stomach tied in knots knowing that every time the phone rang it could be a child in tears because their fish friend was "sleeping". Fortunately that only happened to one other one, until recently.
KJ and Camden shared one fish, "Tiny", and Bennett has his own named "Inspector Fishy". A couple of weeks ago Kendall and Bennett found Tiny, eyes wide and floating sideways, in his bowl. And of course, it was right before bedtime. It took me a good hour to calm Kendall's sobs as she mourned the loss of her favorite fish. I tried the whole "God takes care of all creation and you will see Tiny in heaven" but it didn't help. The next day we had to make another trip to the pet store for a new friend, and named him "Shiny". They were all excited because he is kind of different looking, a shiny silver blue, which I thought was really cool until yesterday.
Because we are trying to make sure Shiny lives a long healthy life, I decided to clean his bowl yesterday. During the process I learned something about Shiny, he is feisty and apparently wants to find a way home. I poured him in a cup to clean his bowl and when I went to pour him back he jumped out of the water (must have been a fish gymnast in another land) and landed on the bathroom counter. I think I screamed. All I could think of was the fact that Shiny had this "special" look and there was no way I would be able to fool KJ with a duplicate if he didn't survive. Not to mention Camden was helping me and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to teach him how to lie to his sister. Fortunately I was able to flip him back into his bowl and I think he has recovered. I must admit I even said a little prayer for him, desperate times call for desperate measures you know! Hopefully she won't find him floating anytime soon. And you wonder why we don't have a dog ;)