Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

The Kindness of Family

Einstein died today, or last night, sometime between the time I went home yesterday and came back to work today. He was such a sweet fishy- he genuinely had a personality, he would swim toward people’s voices, like mine, Cindy’s and Larry’s for some unknown reason (Larry never even noticed). And he would come over to visit people when they came into the office. He would fan out to fight Mary Schettle when she came close to the tank; we decided that he thought her hair looked like another beta. He also clamped his fins down when he was mad, and loved to sit on top of his anemone.

I learned the hard way, however, that an office fish is difficult to keep healthy if the food can be found easily. The week that he began to get really bad I discovered fish food pellets all over my desk, as if someone had spilled them in his tank, and there were well meaning friends who were feeding him not knowing that I was feeding him even on my days off. His tummy bloated, and then he got dropsy. all his fins fell off in one day- it was very disconcerting.

I moved him to a smaller tank and gave him daily water changes, knowing he would die soon and wanting his final days to be as comfortable as possible. It seemed like he died multiple times, and I would get close to check and he would be alive! The roller coaster of emotion was really hard. I knew I would have to flush his body when the time came, but everyone at the office knew I had a hard time with that concept- flushing a creature God made down the toilet. I prefer to bury or cremate pets and wasn’t looking forward to dealing with this.

So imagine how loved and cared for I felt when I came into work today to see this:

Mom had seen him floating in his bowl, clearly actually dead this time, and flushed him for me, rinsed out the bowl, and placed a memorial wreath in his place. I needed that, thanks Mommers.