A quality pet.

I don't think there is a child out there that hasn't had a pet of some sort growing up. In Chloe's curriculum they suggested getting a terrarium and some crickets to see how animals live, etc. I mentioned this to Brian as a 'whatever' kind of possibility, knowing the things would just die and - "What is the point in buying something you know is just going to die in a matter of weeks?" Brian fully supports this schooling at home, so he volunteered to get 'us' a fish. That night Chloe and daddy had a date. To the 'pet store'/"Walmart"... and came back with what seemed like everything a fish would need- food, pretty gravel, a 'cage'... And so we set it up that night and the tiger barb fish was named, 'Cow'. The next morning it received another name - 'Cow Stripes'.... so it was that they were happy with Cow Stripes. Gabe stared deviously at the aquarium...hm. Good thing it was out of his reach, eh? The girls traded off feeding the fish food and all seemed so good - a focus on living things instead of a recent loss. Until this morning as the girls got up for their morning breakfast and sat at the table. "Cow Stripes is sleeping!" Really? I checked it out and sure enough he was 'sleeping' on the bottom of the tank floor. I immediately headed to my room where I told Brian he was going to have to tell the girls the news. Eva argued with him for quite some time - and it didn't help that he started floating up gradually throughout the day..."He woke up, mom!" "No. No, honey. He's just a little more dead..." Chloe strikes out with "Everything's dead. The babies dead! Cow's dead!" That didn't sit at all well with us and we let her know that was understandable, but not acceptable to say. Moving on- we sucked it up, went to the official pet store and bought a beta fish. Apparently- the other fish needed the 'air bubblers' to live. Go figure. "The fish just ran out of oxygen and basically suffocated," the lady announced to our family of pet-co cart pushers. (I love their mini-carts there) That 'bubbler thing' would have been nice to know Wal-man.... So now we have a male beta, named Rainbow who is a 'girl' and fish food and dechlorinator. And I hope this lasts more than 3 days. (The girls laughed hysterically as I flushed Cow down the toilet. The idea was just absurd to them... I didn't have them watch but did 'the deed' while they were munching snacks. "Goodye Cow! Have a good time in heaven!") And thanks to Cow, we are now more educated about keeping fish.