Do You Know CPR?

How about fish CPR?
And so the story of our first family pet ends...just as fast as it began. Let me start with the kids' new fascination with visits to the pet store. Grandma J took Kai for his birthday in February and he quickly learned the PetSmart logo. Now every time we hit Target they talk me into a quick visit.

E and I have always said NO PETS...having gone that route before children and knowing what a hassle more poop around the house becomes. But the little critters...like hamsters and bunnies are so darn cute! Well, Elena finally came up with a fish as the perfect first pet. So I told the kids if I found a set up at a garage sale this summer I'd let them try one.

First garage sale week of the year and what do I find? A one dollar bargain aquarium. Of course, it was just like the one I sold at my garage sale 3 years ago for $3...actually not even as nice...but I digress.

This was last Thursday...we bought a few additional essentials and our first pretty blue betta fish on Friday. Our family night fun was to put it all together and wa-lah, our pet was well on his way to a fabulously spoiled life. We named him Azul. We gave the kids rules on feeding and no putting anything else in the tank to play with the fish. What we forgot was to tell them that FISH CANNOT LIVE OUTSIDE OF WATER.

Saturday evening I'm getting ready to leave with the kids and Kai is MIA for about 5 minutes (ya know...the eerie quiet MIA of a three year old). I walk into the bathroom where he is on the counter next to the aquarium...he quickly throws poor Azul back into the tank, hears me exclaim "Kai!!! You can't do that!! You'll kill the fishy!!"...and starts sobbing with big tears running down his face.

Well, being that we don't know fish CPR, he struggles to make it through the night panting on the bottom of the tank. By Sunday after church we have our first dead pet. We planted a new red bud tree this weekend, so Azul became some useful fertilizer after a brief funeral. Bummer. The tank is now in the attic. We're going to wait awhile before trying this again!

What a roller coaster....we went from questions on pet care to questions about where pets go when they die in 24 hours. At the end of it all...Kai is still proud that he got to hold and play with his fish...he said Azul was hard to catch...he had to "trap 'im real quick"!