Fish

The question that I have is simply, when do you tell a kid that their pet 
Goldfish has died. We have all been there. You go to the to carnival and win the 
holy grail of prizes- the elusive gold fish! Never mind that you spent $5.00 on 
ping pong balls to throw them into a tiny glass bowl, set apart in such a way as 
to have the ball bounce onto the ground, to win a .15 fish. You win the prize 
and you are happy. Forget that now you have to go out and get a bowl, gravel, 
ornaments and food. You are too thrilled to worry about that! So now you have 
spent around $30 on your .15 prize. Your fish, now named, " fish" or "dog" or 
something like that is now part of your family. You go off to school and come 
home to say hello to your new friend, but wait, "fido" looks different. You are 
positive he was bigger or she was smaller.

Time passes and so do many "sushi's", all without your knowledge, and you are ok 
with that.

For me, I now understand that concept.  I was put in that position recently when 
my sister's fish died. I was faced with the choice of telling her that her pet 
was never coming back and having to explain where it went, or, going to the pet 
store and replacing "Tuna". The choice was simple- I am a coward.  "Veronica" 
was happily swimming around in the bowl and the question of doesn't he look 
different was answered with, " uh, nope".  

Maybe next time I will be honest, or maybe the time after that because there is 
always time to grow up. Not today, however.