Betty: A Memorial

How do you eulogize a fish? I came home from a quick skate tonight to find a note on the kitchen counter in my daughter's unmistakable hand saying the following:

Betty is dead.
It did not eat for a week.
Zoe
(I never want a pet again!)

She was in her bedroom crying. If that doesn't break your heart even a little bit, I don't want to know you. She had said nothing about Betty's apparent illness because she felt she might get in trouble if she admitted to having a sick fish. That hurts.

To be honest, I'm amazed she kept that thing alive this long. I gave her the fish as a birthday gift nearly a year ago; her first real pet. For an eight year old to keep a cheap Petsmart fish of unknown age and provenance alive for nearly a year is quite a feat, if you ask me. She did a great job, but some things are inevitable.

And so my beloved first born flushed her first dead fish tonight. She seemed a bit confused and disturbed by this particular childhood right of passage. You could see her adorable eight-year-old brain associating the fish's upcoming journey with that of the toilet's more typical cargo. Not a dignified send-off, but an efficient one, which is about the most a $5 fish can realistically expect, I would think.

So long Betty. Sleep well.

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