When Fish Die and Catholics Don't Drink Coffee

My middle daughter got 3 fish for Christmas on Sunday. I think I followed all the directions for transferring them to their new bowl; however one of them went belly up this morning.




So, I woke her up for school and told her of the sad news. I asked her if she wanted me to remove "Snowball" from the bowl before she saw the bowl. She did and for the rest of the morning she sobbed.....literally sobbed for the fishy friend she had known for less than 48 hours. Did I ever tell you that she is my very sensitive kid????





Now, my older daughter wanted to see me remove the pet. She asked me, "Are you sure it is not sleeping?" "Nope, it is dead....they don't sleep on their side like that on the bottom of the bowl", I replied. I reminded my oldest of her reaction when she had pet goldfish.





When she was four, my oldest daughter had two goldfish, Nemo and Marlin. I wrote this in her memory book.....
"Two days ago we bought two goldfish and today they died. Daddy and I were struggling on how we should tell you about your little fish. We were sitting around the table and out of the blue you said, "Sometimes bad things happen"! Dad and I looked at each other and new it was time to tell you the bad news.

Then we waited for your response. Your reply shocked us, "It is funny when fish die!" Later you said, "They went back to Wal-mart!" " That was too easy for John and me.





John and I hope our new goldfish hang on until Christmas, we will see. So in honor of the white goldfish named Snowball who was dearly loved by my middle daughter a moment of silence......












I am glad I grabbed this picture last night and that it has Snowball in it. I think it will help her. But I keep seeing one of the other fish hanging out at the bottom. It doesn't look like she is going to make it through the day........ this is going to be rough.

There will be lots of hugs and comforting going on this afternoon if fish #2 goes to the big fish bowl in the sky! O man, I hope not ......I don't think her sweet heart could take it.

Update: 12/21/10

They are all dead even the one we replaced last week....So long Snowball, Abby, Bubbles and Emmy! I think she now understands....fish die!

Oh a funny side story, The other day, we asked my oldest daughter, "What does your teacher like, we need to get him a Christmas present?" We then asked, "Does he drink coffee?"(thinking we could get him a gift card at Northern Expresso)

Her reply was hilarious...."I don't know if he drinks coffee. He is catholic!" John and I busted out laughing. We probably should not have but it was too hilarious. When we asked her why he wouldn't drink coffee her answer was, "Catholics do things different...I don't know what he drinks."