Death of a Beloved Family Pet

Tonight was a sad night for our family. Tonight, we lost Sara, aka Zoe, aka Genevieve, aka.. Oh goodness I can't remember all of the name changes this poor fish went through. Caroline's fish passed away sometime today. This very name confused Beta fish was a member of our family for about 8 months. Poor Caroline hasn't had much luck with pets, her first hermit crab went to go visit his grandparents at the beach and decided to stay with them (she was 4 years old and that's how we explained it), the second hermit crab lasted MAYBE 2 months, her first Goldfish died within the month, and this Beta fist lasted 8 months (the longest of any fish we've had). I mean I don't know what happened to the poor fish, I mean I fed it and changed it's water so I don't understand what happened. All of her poor animals couldn't have all been old.

Anyway, when we got home from dinner and she discovered "what's its name" at the bottom of the tank, we scooped him out and she was given the choice of having its funeral by flushing it or burying it in the front flowerbed. She chose the dignified flushing service. So Jack, Caroline, and I stood around the toilet while Caroline tried to say goodbye to "her bestest animal friend a girl could have". She couldn't get much out, so brother took over. He gave a pretty good eulogy considering this was a fish and together he and Caroline flushed the poor thing.

This is when all heck broke loose. Not only did I have Caroline crying, but now Jack was crying! For about 2 minutes I had to listen to her telling me how much she's going to miss "what's its name" and Jack trying to console his sister by telling her how much "what's it's name" was loved and that it had been "the best fish a girl could have" and that it's in a much better place right now. This made Caroline cry even harder because she'd just flushed her "bestest friend in the whole world" and that didn't seem like a great place to be. Her crying harder made him cry harder. So there I am in the bathroom trying to console two crying children who are mourning the loss of a fish I'm not even sure of its name.