To Kill a Betta Fish

In Memory of Blueberry Christie

Yesterday we had to Google "how to humanely euthanize a fish."

In case you were wondering how we were spending the new year - that's where we're at.

Our Betta Blueberry has been sick for a while. We moved him to a larger tank and he did good for a few days and then he spent all his time laying on the rocks. We thought that meant he was close to death so we were going to let nature take its course. We had hard talks with Alice who seemed to think his inevitable demise would mean she could get a hamster. That led to more talks about how we were not going to get her a hamster.

We were sure he was close to death. 

Only this went on for WEEKS. 

We tried adding a friend, we tried adding medicine. We did everything the internet suggested to make him better. And yet he was still doing nothing but laying on the rocks. His color was good! He was just not moving around other than to take a quick breath. 

But yesterday he took a turn for the worse and we just couldn't let him suffer. 

So we had to search how to humanely kill our child's birthday present. 

This kind of stuff isn't in any of the parenting books. I'm going to write a parenting book with all this extra crazy stuff you don't know you need to know. 

My Beloved and I discussed options. Should we proceed with Operation RIPBB while Alice was at school or wait until she got home? I felt like this is a life lesson she needed to be present for so we waited. 

My Beloved ran out for the item we needed and when Alice got home, we let her process what was going to happen. 

And then we killed our fish in a drinking glass in our kitchen. We tell ourselves it was a peaceful way to go but really, who knows?! 

This wasn't really on our plan for Dry January however, it didn't lead to us drinking so there's that. 

Blueberry Christie has been laid to rest in an unmarked grave in our backyard and we have plans to add more fish this weekend. We will pick a more friendly option this time. 

This is the second traumatic pet experience we have had this year but that story is for another day.

A day we're not a house in mourning. 

Until next time....