Disposable

This is our second attempt at being goldfish people. We were given two little fishies and surprisingly, after a week of living with us, the two little orange guys don't have names yet. We are very casual fish owners. They sat on the kitchen counter in a ziplock bag for a good day or so before I put them in a temporary holding area. That would be a tupperware bowl. Finally I remembered to pick up a real true fish bowl. I think they were happy to have a permanent home complete with a purple and black pebble "sea bed". They were probably also wondering what kind of fate they were in for, being neglected so early in our relationship. You know, watching the nameless fish swim endless circles around their bowl takes me back. Back to our first attempt at fish ownership........

We inherited a goldfish from my little sister a few years ago. I was new to the whole fish thing and I didn't know the first thing about changing the water in the bowl. You can see where this is going. About a week after we took the adoptive fish under our care, I dumped out the water, rinsed out the bowl, and filled it back up with new water......tap water. Sure enough, within a few minutes our little buddy was belly up and floating around the surface of his underwater home. The kids were mad at me. I appeased them with a fish funeral that we happened to capture on home video. I watched that video recently and made a note to myself. "Next time it might be a good idea to thoroughly scrub the toilet before documenting it for all of eternity." Each of the kids took a few moments to say their farewells to the deceased fish in the plastic dixie cup. Noelle's speech was especially dramatic and full of sorrow. She handed the cup to the previous fish owner and Mariah then said her goodbyes. Again with the drama, and then a small silly smirk revealing her true feelings toward her pet . At the very moment, she squeezed the cup a little too hard and dead fish water splashed up onto her face. The fish had the last say. All solemness was thrown out the window in exchange for "eeeews" and lots of laughter. The fish was quickly flushed down the dirty toilet and that was the end of that.

This time I am hoping we can improve our record by at least a few weeks. Dare I hope for months? I am armed with a bottle of chlorine neutralizing drops for our tap water and a jar of fish food that should last us a year or two. Now if we could only think of some names or they will be remembered as John and Jane Doe in their inevitable eulogy. It's really only a matter of time.