Where fish go to die...

My thought after the fish-tastrophe of 2013, was, "Not so good with plants, terrible with fish, doing alright with kids, I'll stick with the kids."

Our longest living fish died last week.  We were down to one.  I kinda thought we were good with one.  But then Garrett kept telling me his fish died and got flushed down the toilet.  I heard about it one too many times, so I told him we could go pick out a new fish.

We picked out a guppy, and while the fish lady was fishing him out, the kids were obsessed with watching the frogs.  I told them our tank was too little for a frog.  The fish lady said, "You can have one of these frogs."  She pointed to these little nickel-sized African guppy frog things.  They were only $3.50, so we got one of those too.  I had to sign a paper that said we wouldn't sue them if one of us touched the frog and got sick.  And when we had the frog out and ready to go she informed me that he needed different food.  So it cost a little more than $3.50, but whatever.

Night one of guppy/frog/old fish bonding seemed to go ok.  The next morning though, the guppy, Go Fish, was dead.  Our old fish is Mr. Fishie, Guppy was Go Fish, and the frog was, notice I said was, High Jump.

After Go Fish died, we decided to clean the tank and change the water.  We put High Jump and Mr. Fishie in a glass vase.  We decided to leave them in the vase overnight to let the new water purify.  Before I went to bed I noticed Mr. Fishie was kinda bugging High Jump.  He's kind of a chubby lazy fish and he lays on the bottom a lot.  He kept laying on High Jump.  Paul took him out and put him in a different vase.  Then he put Saran wrap over all of the top except for about a half an inch space.  I didn't think that was necessary because the fish lady said he would not jump out unless there were rocks or a plant leading right to the exit of the tank.  There was a good four inches from the top of the water to the top of the vase, and nothing in there with him.  We left the vases on the stove top and went to bed.

The next morning when I got up I checked on Mr. Fishie first because he seemed to be resting more than usual.  He seemed fine.  So I looked in the other vase.  High Jump was gone!  At least he lived up to his name in his short life.  He was gone gone.  I looked everywhere.  I woke Paul and he got a flash light.  We pulled the oven out and took as much of it apart as we could.  We cleared and washed the counter and moved everything.  No sign of him.

So we did what anyone would do.  Turned the oven on for a while.  We still have yet to find the poor little guy.

Paul went and bought a couple 10 cent feeder fish the next day.  The tank is still in his bathroom and I haven't even seen the new ones or Mr. Fishie in days.  I'm kinda over the fish.  We'll see how I feel when Garrett gets back.  He still doesn't know about High Jump.

He was here when Go Fish died.  He walked out of his room with a droopy lip and sadly said, "Go Fish died."  I said, "I'm sorry bud, are you sad?"  He cheered right up and said, "No."  I said, "Oh...good...did you not know him long enough to be sad that he died?"  He again cheerfully said, "Yeah!"  Maybe he'll forget while he's gone that we even had a frog.

puppies and babies

I love that babies have this magical power to make anyone feel all warm and gushy. Perfect strangers, doesn't matter the age, race, or gender... or 'look'...

I had to do a return at Home Depot today. Paul took Garrett with him this afternoon to pick up a grave marker, so Addie and I ran to do my return.

While getting my refund, Addie was in the cart in her carrier. I heard a man get in line behind me but I didn't look at him. I heard him throw out a 'what up dawg' to an employee that was standing near the exit. I finished and turned to pull the cart to walk away. The man behind me- he was black, had saggy jeans, a gold front tooth, and a backwards baseball hat. As I started to push the cart into the store, he said, "you have a very beautiful daughter, by the way."

We went to the paint section. (Because I'm gathering a few paint chips for a project...it's not stealing.) I felt like the guy who was also checking out paint chips, was standing kinda close. I even felt like I was in his way a few times. I finally looked at him and he was looking at Addison smiling. He was an older white Grandpa type man, wearing a suit and tie. I smiled at him and he said, "what a pretty little girl."

Leaving the store a few minutes later with my (free) paint samples, there was a couple just outside the door. A tiny, short women, and a super tall Hispanic man with a totally shaved head, a long black gotee, a woman's face tattooed on his neck, those eye dot tattoos, and he was wearing what can best be described as an orange prison jumpsuit. As we walked past him, he loudly said, "Oohhh man! Look at that baby!! That baby is CUUUU-UTE!!!"

I laughed as we walked to the car. Such a diverse and complimentary day at the man warehouse, just me and my baby girl.

So, yesterday, Paul text me to tell me that Levi, one of the White's family dogs was sick. He was having a really hard time breathing. They had an x-ray done, and he had a huge tumor in his chest. :( We all met at the Vet to say good-bye to the puppy. Yes, he was almost 8 years old and about 250 pounds, but I've always referred to him and his sister as 'the puppies'.It was sad. (And just between you and me, I don't even really like those dogs.) Garrett loves them. We told him he was really sick and had to go bye-bye. I'm not sure he got it, but they sure had fun together for the last few minutes of Levi's life. Garrett fed him his last meal, a Whopper from Burger King. He rode him for a while. He blew him a kiss and said "Byeeee". When Levi left us to get his sedative, Garrett just stood at the door, all alone, staring at it.

Happy little Addie. How nice it would be to be totally oblivious to a situation once in a while.We all went to the room as they put him down. Even I cried. I'm not a dog person. But I'm fully aware that I married a dog person. And I'm fully aware that I gave birth to a dog person. We will have a dog (or dogs) someday. I just can't imagine how sad I'll be if we ever have to go through something like this and it's Garrett's dog.Good-bye, Levi.