Yesterday morning Lydia woke up and after greeting her pet fish went and picked out a book to read to Woofy. It was titled, "You are Special!" I relished in watching her "read" to her fish.
This morning I woke up to Dan saying, "I hope you didn't spend a lot of money on Dog Dog!" After asking why, he told me he had gone down stairs to find Dog Dog dead in the fish bowl with a bloated stomach. I felt awful, maybe the bowl wasn't big enough for him, or maybe he didn't get enough food . . . too much air? It hadn't even been twenty four hours, how could he already be dead? Everyone had joked that they thought Dog Dog would eat Woofy and yet Woofy was happily swimming around while Dog Dog was dead fish. Maybe Woofy isn't such a wimp! I have a feeling Woofy knows something the rest of us don't!
Suddenly I stopped worrying about the fish and started worrying about how Lydia would react. I told Dan we should run to the store and buy a new one before she woke up and he said "No Way!" He thought we should just tell her the truth and she would learn the proper way that fish go. He of course had already flushed it down the toilet and was on his way out the door to work, leaving me with the responsibility of breaking the sad news. Luckily it went better than I had thought.
Mommy: Lydia I have some sad news.
Lydia: Why Mommy?
Mommy: This morning when Daddy came downstairs for breakfast (pause) Dog Dog was dead.
Lydia: How did he get out?
Mommy: Well he didn't actually get out, he was just dead in the bowl this morning.
Lydia: Oh
Mommy: Maybe he just needed his fish tank and the bowl wasn't big enough, or maybe he was just sick but he's gone to fishy heaven now.
Lydia: Oh, Woofy will miss his friend.
Mommy: Yes, he will.
Lydia: Mom, maybe we can go to the store and buy Woofy some new friends?
So Long Dog Dog You'll be Missed!
3 comments:
Good for you, Cassie, for telling her the truth!!
My sister teaches preschool and her students found a dead bird on the playground. She said, "Oh, it's just sleeping," but her co-teacher said, "Hey! We don't lie to the kids!" So she told them that it had died. Kids have a better capacity for dealing with death than we realize, as you saw. But it's still hard. I'm proud of you!
Poor Dog Dog! Though I am looking forward to Woofy's new friends' names (if they are in fact on their way...).
oh so sad. I love that he was named dog dog, Lydia is so funny.
I can't believe Emmitt is one...crazy how time flies! Love the fish story... we have been doing the same thing with our rabbits, we let them go the other day and it was a little traumatic but what do you do!
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