The fish who lived.........

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted. I have been in the outside world actually DOING things. :-) We have been cleaning out closets, moving furniture and generally getting the house de-junked. I tend to keep things that I don't need. Little did I know on Memorial Day that we would be the beneficiaries of a miracle.

Let me back up. A few weeks ago I was cleaning the kitchen counter and looked at Fairy Lu's very dirty fish tank (for those of you who don't know...Fairy Lou is the fish that we bought after Lauren's beloved Great Grandma died ON HER BIRTHDAY!!). I am talking "so much algae that you can barely see the fish" dirty. She didn't seem to mind and in fact I think she was thriving..these fish do live in the rice paddies....there must be mud there. This is actually Fairy Lu 5. The first 4 died within hours or days of being introduced to their new home. We felt that Lulu was traumatized enough w/ death so we ran out and bought NEW fish. Do you know how hard it is to find a Beta that is the same color as the one you had before? I think Lauren's Uncle Jay even went out to Petsmart in the late hours of the night to get one. One even died while my sister and I were sitting and looking at it....it was slowly swimming in circles and then ... blub, blub, blub...belly up on the top of the tank. So, Fairy Lou 5 has been doing great and has lasted for about 6 months. While cleaning the counter, I noticed that Fairy Lou looked a bit sluggish. About an hour later I noticed that she was floating on the top of the tank. Belly up.

Crap.

I made an executive decision that pet disposal and/or breaking the bad news fell into the realm of what Daddy's do. I put a dish cloth on the tank (a shroud?) and called my husband. Oh, I want to point out as well that Derek was tired of the dirty tank and decided to clean it out. I didn't want to tempt fate and it turned out I was right. The unfortunate demise of Fairy Lou was just a week after the tank was cleaned. I put the tank on the back porch and left it up to him. Derek thought that Lauren might want to say "good by" to the fish and be there when she went to the great toilet bowl in the sky. He got home really late from work the next few nights so it just never happened. The tank remained on the back porch, covered. Lauren never even noticed that the tank was gone (out of sight, out of mind?).

Memorial Day, Derek decided that it was a good day to tell Lu about the fish. He went to the back porch to get the little tank. A few seconds later I hear the loudest yell and then laughing I have ever heard.

"She's not dead!!!"

?????????????????????

"Are you sure...are you SURE it isn't just the water in the tank moving that makes you think she is alive..it has been A WEEK" I answer.

And as proof he held up the tank and sure enough, there was Fairy Lou swimming back and forth. Alive as you and me. Is it a miracle? Is that fish just a really good actor? Should we check for a small lightning shaped scar on its little fish forehead? It it because I made the Lord Voldemort joke about Cubby? Maybe Cubby really IS he who can not be named. :-)

Either way...Fairy Lou the fish came back to us. The tank went right back onto the counter where it usually goes and a few minutes later and Lulu, who never even noticed that the tank was missing, asked "Mom, can I feed Fairy Lou".

True Story.