All good things must come to an end

***WARNING! Potentially graphic photos for the weak at heart!***

Well, today ended the stay of our little aquarium friends. The adventure began last fall when someone at church gave us a few goldfish that had been left from a big BBQ, and I decided to let Kirsten try her hand at being a pet owner. Two of the fish died, but one thriving goldfish, of whom she named BB, survived and flourished.

Her excitement over BB was contagious, and I soon found myself taking a trip to the pet store with Kirsten, and purchasing a much larger home for BB... along with rocks & a castle & some new friends!

As with many pets to parents, I grew tired of the upkeep of the tank. It's hard enough sometimes for me to keep up with the dishes, let alone keeping a fishtank nice & clean! Needless to say, I felt quite guilty last week when I looked in the tank and discovered that BB had died.

I felt responsible. I hadn't been cleaning the tank for about two months now, and I found myself often wishing they would just "disappear." (I had been feeding them every few days, though... I couldn't keep myself from doing that!) Kirsten was sad that BB was dead, and we flushed him down the toilet. She was hoping maybe he'd wake up when he got to the ocean. I said, "Maybe!?!"

This evening Kirsten told me she had to show me something in the fish tank. It was Froggie, laying flat on her back. She had died, too.

Kirsten tried to figure what was causing her beloved pets to die... maybe they ate some of the rocks at the bottom? Maybe something in the tank is making them sick? After we said a few kind words and flushed Froggie, we came up with an idea. Maybe if we flushed the rest of the fishies down, they would be able to go live in the ocean and be happy! And they wouldn't catch whatever was making the others die! We were saving them! Excited about the adventure they'd have (you know, like Dori & Nemo!), she hastily encouraged me to gather up the remaining four: Spot (the catfish), Rainbow, Flag, and Tiger.

We lovingly placed them in, told them of the adventure before them, and Kirsten wanted to do the honors of setting them free! After a flush or two more to help propel them to the ocean, I was amazed at the adorable smile on my little girl's face. In that moment, we both were happy to the core... I got my wish, and she became a hero.