You Say Goodbye...I Say Hello...

After we came back from our Colorado trip, we decided it was time to get Katelynn a pet. We can't have cats since Matt's allergic and we have both agreed we do not want to get a dog. Hamsters and guinea pigs didn't appeal to me and seemed to be too much work for Katelynn. Mice, rats & snakes are just right out and I think anyone in their right mind would agree. :) We settled on a betta fish. We bought a male one since they are pretty. We bought a small tank and put it in Katelynn's room. She loved him and named him "Dorothy". (Dorothy is the name of Elmo's fish on Sesame Street, in case you didn't know. That is a public service announcement.)

We enjoyed having Dorothy around. Katelynn would feed him morning and evening. When we first got him Matt said that we would have to clean the tank every month. It got to be the beginning of August and I asked if we should clean the tank. "Oh, I'll get to it before we leave for Tennessee and we'll let the neighbor kids watch him while we're gone." As we got closer and closer to the trip, the answer changed from cleaning the tank before the trip to after the trip.

I've never had a fish before so I don't know these things. Matt has had fish before and I thought that I would let him take care of it. In the last week or two, I noticed that Dorothy wasn't swimming and eating as much and his beautiful garnet color on his body had turned translucent. I thought it didn't seem right and even Matt thought it was strange too. We fed Dorothy and then took off for Tennessee last Thursday morning. We spent the time up there for Aunt Suzi's wedding and had a great time. We drove back on Sunday, so that we would have all day yesterday to recuperate. We got back at 12:30am and Matt went into Katelynn's room to check on Dorothy, but alas, poor Dorothy was gone.

Well, what do you do? And what do you tell Katelynn? At first we told her that Dorothy was sleeping so she wouldn't tap the tank. Then we had her play outside and Matt took care of Dorothy and the tank and we agreed that we would get Katelynn a new fish. Katelynn came in from playing and immediately saw that there was no Dorothy and no water in the tank. She started asking questions, all the normal ones a child would. We decided to be up front with her, but not too detailed. We told her Dorothy had been sick and had died while we were on the trip, but we were going to get her a new fish. She perked right up at that. Matt got her a new fish which was named "Rainbow Dorothy", yet another male betta.

Katelynn was full of questions about Dorothy dying, where did he go? And she was full of statement along the lines of wanting 2 fish or how she had 2 Dorothys, but one had died. Then she asked if she could tell her friends at preschool today that Dorothy had died. I cautiously said okay (knowing she could very well forget and probably would) and quickly added that she needed to tell them she had Rainbow Dorothy now. She has taken all of this in stride and has been matter of fact about it. I expect questions or comments throughout the week, but we'll see how she does and so far she's fine. And we have a beautiful new fish. :)