A little over two years ago, Nash convinced me to get him a new pet. We agreed on a beta fish that wouldn’t require too much work or expense and according the pet store peeps, would last longer than a gold fish. Nash named him Blah Blah. He fed him every day – for about three weeks. Then everyone including Vegas the cat just sort of forgot about him. But I changed his water twice a year regularly and threw a few pellets of food in when I remembered daily. He was a good fish and rarely caused any trouble. For all we know, he’s responsible for scaring off any potential burglars when we weren’t home. Well, last night when I got home from a long day at a work outing (on the Cape, with booze, lobsters and a side trip to Ikea) my MIL informed me via a note so the words did not have to be spoken out loud (she’s wicked smart like that) that Blah Blah had passed away. Even though I was sort of relieved to have one less thing to worry about every month day, I was a little sad. I mean, he’s been holding down that same section of the counter for over two years. Of course I did just get a bread keeper from Ikea that requires just about the same amount of space. Everything happens for a reason, right? (so going to hell….)
And of course you’re asking yourself “How did Nash take the news?”. Well, here’s the thing. When our dog Buddy died a while back, Jeff and I took the day to grieve and figure out how we were going to break the news to Nash. We picked him up from preschool that day and then just assumed when we got home, he would ask where Buddy was. But he didn’t. So we just sort of waited until he brought it up. TWO DAYS LATER he made a comment about Buddy being sick and said “But he’s going to OK, right?” Um…. So we told him he had died and it just became this little fact to him. One day I was at a class and and as he and Jeff were leaving the house he said to Vegas “You’re going to be all alone now because we’re leaving, mom’s at her class and Buddy’s dead”.
So now it’s sort of a game. How long until he notices? Days, weeks, months?? I’ll keep you posted…….
