Old fish, New fish

While fixing breakfast yesterday morning, I reminded Lexy to feed her pet fish Swimmy. A few moments later Lexy asks "why is Swimmy on the bottom?". My heart stopped as I walked over to her, I looked at the fish and then at Lexy and tears started filling Lexy's eyes and then mine.

You see...Papa & Grammy bought Swimmy (1) for Lexy as a gift and Lexy loved and talked to that fish like it was her best friend. So when Mike noticed one evening several months ago that Swimmy (1) had passed on I ran out and replaced him with Swimmy (2) before Lexy noticed. Lexy never knew even though Swimmy (1) and Swimmy (2) didn't even look the same (except they were both Betta Fish).

I knew this time would not be so easy. All day yesterday Lexy would ask questions..."why did Swimmy die?", "Why isn't he in a grave?", "Can I still talk to Swimmy?" and make statements..."Swimmy needs a grave and a marker that says Here Lies Swimmy", "Swimmy is in that big aquarium in the sky now", "I know Swimmy would be happy if I got a new fish". Lexy decided that Swimmy would rather have a toilet burial and said goodbye with tears in her eyes.

Today I asked Lexy if she wanted to get another fish and she said yes (after trying to get the dog (mini dachshund) that she's been begging for out of the deal). So Lexy, Brooke and I went to Wal-Mart to choose a new friend. At first we didn't see the bettas so we were looking at the goldfish but then we came across two bettas and Lexy fell in love with one of them. So we came home with Lexy's new friend, Fineous Swimmy Fishtin (yes she made this up) and some new rocks and a plant for his bowl.

Lexy with her new friend Fineous (red)