Yesterday I was babysitting a four-year-old neighbor who was really excited to show me the pet fish on her nightstand. She held my hand and led me to the tank, where I saw a beautiful purple beta, floating upside down at the top. Faith was looking right at it too, but she was just chatting away about having her own pet in her room and how often she has to feed it.
"How's it doing," I asked cautiously.
"Really good!" she said.
I didn't have the heart to tell her how wrong she was.
Then today I saw this video, which sort of makes me wish I could have been there when she learned the truth, just in case something this adorable had happened next.
Remember: This girl is not my neighbor. Different dead fish.
3 comments:
I might sabotage my child's first attempts at pet fish ownership just so I can selfishly have moments like these.
Hahahaha... Oh Nathan, I'll be right there with you. I was trying my best to not laugh out loud in the coffee shop that I'm sitting in right now. That would be a bit embarrassing to me.
Molly, for a second I thought that your neighbors had filmed their daughter and posted it on youtube. But, apparently that's not what happened. Regardless, I imagined that this little girl is your neighbor anyway.
It turns out the fish was not dead after all. It just never moved. Ever. Plus, to the uninitiated, betas might look upside down when they're really right side up. So the next day I was shocked to see it still in the tank. How could they not notice Nemo* was dead? I wondered. But then I looked closely and saw that his gills were pulsing, ever so slightly.
But today he really was dead. They had buried him by the back porch and a funeral service was scheduled for late afternoon when everyone was home to say a few words. Maybe it wasn't a good idea, but I showed Faith a little of this video yesterday. Today she seemed excited about the funeral and kept saying what a nice fish Nemo was and how much he liked his food. Hmm...
(*Yes, she named him Nemo. This girl comes up with clever, outrageous names for us when we play house or babysitter or shopkeeper. "This baby doll's name is... Fabania," she'll say. But she's less original with fish names, I guess.)
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