Hello, Jon here. Claudia was too broken up to post this herself. (Not really) I'm here to eulogize Albert the betta fish. It was Christmastime 2007 when Claudia brought him home. I'd known she had bought some sort of pet, but I wasn't sure what. I thought it might be a kitten or a small rodent. I was wrong. Claudia had brought home Albert, a handsome blue betta fish.
My wife's family never had any pets. They thought five kids was enough, she says. My family, on the other hand, has had a variety of species over the years. The list includes a pug dog, cats, a parrot, parakeets, cockatiels, a kakariki bird, guinea pigs, siberian dwarf hamsters, white mice, hermit crabs, goldfish, Sea Monkeys, tadpoles, a rabbit, an albino red rat snake, and a scorpion. But this was my first betta fish.
Frankly, I was hoping for a more... substantial pet. You know, something small and furry to run around the house and leave pleasant chaos in its wake. You can tell we don't have kids yet if I was looking for that. But Claudia is unfamiliar with the ways of animals, and is frankly alarmed by them. So the most she could bring herself to purchase was this tiny fish. Still, he was a fine fish, and she had started to bond with him. And he became part of our lives. Albert was an acrobat. He would somersalt and flip for attention. He paid a lot of attention to us, more than we'd expected. He would pivot his body to look at us head-on no matter where we were in the room. Well, regretfully, Albert became sick with dropsy while I was out of town this week. When I came home, I saw he was sick and tried to administer medicine. It was too late - the shock of having his water changed was more than he could take in his weakened condition. So I built him a coffin:
This was my first pet since leaving the parents' home a decade ago. His passing sort of reminded me of all the others that came before. After all, the passing of a pet is very serious to a child. I guess that's why I made a childlike inscription on his coffin:
I chose a small patch of dirt near our back door to lay Albert to rest. Perhaps a burial at sea would be more appropriate, but he was a freshwater fish. So the back of the house was as good as anywhere.
I bore his casket to the place that was prepared and nestled him into the ground.
The paparazzi showed up to gape at me. Can't they leave me a moment of peace in a time of tribulation?
Well, here ends the earthly chapter of the story of Albert the betta fish. May he swim and puff in eternal felicity in the next life.
My wife's family never had any pets. They thought five kids was enough, she says. My family, on the other hand, has had a variety of species over the years. The list includes a pug dog, cats, a parrot, parakeets, cockatiels, a kakariki bird, guinea pigs, siberian dwarf hamsters, white mice, hermit crabs, goldfish, Sea Monkeys, tadpoles, a rabbit, an albino red rat snake, and a scorpion. But this was my first betta fish.
I bore his casket to the place that was prepared and nestled him into the ground. 
Well, here ends the earthly chapter of the story of Albert the betta fish. May he swim and puff in eternal felicity in the next life.
1 comment:
My deepest sympathies, sorry for your loss.
People always gave me a hard time about it, but I buried all my fish, too. In a coffin.
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