Vader the Goldfish

We went to a Little Mermaid themed birthday party on Saturday.  In fitting in with the theme, the party favor was a goldfish.  The goldfish came in a cute container with colorful rocks and even a little baggy of food.  Trent could not have been happier to have a goldfish.  We have had a few goldfish before when Trent was little, but he doesn't remember, so to him this was his first goldfish. Trent named the goldfish Vader and was looking forward to waking up each morning and feeding Vader.  Hearing all of Trent's plans for Vader, Tim and I prepared him for the likely event that Vader may not make it through the night.  When we told Trent this he didn't seem to fully understand that Vader may pass during the night.  He couldn't believe that goldfishes have short life spans.  After discussing places to put Vader, we decided on the counter in the bathroom.  Tim and I didn't think this was a great place because it can get cold in there overnight, but we thought Vader would do fine.  Trent said goodnight to Vader and told him he would feed him in the morning.  Trent was becoming obsessed with how much to feed Vader and why did he only need a few pebbles of food and the questions just kept coming.  We finally got Trent to bed and I hoped that Trent would be able to feed Vader in the morning.

No such luck!  When I got up at 7 the next morning, Vader had passed away.  I thought he would have at least made it a few days.  I quickly disposed of Vader and prepared myself to tell Trent.  The downside of putting Vader in the bathroom was I was going to have to tell Trent as soon as he woke up because the first thing he does when he wakes up is go to the bathroom.  So, when I heard Trent up I quickly got to him before he made it to the bathroom and told him that Vader had passed away and is now in fish heaven.  There were some tears and then Trent said that when he goes to heaven he is going to look for Vader and can't wait to swim deep down in the oceans of heaven to find him. That boy has such a good heart.  Trent and I also discussed getting another fish and I told him maybe we should wait until it's warmer out (I was fully prepared to get another fish that day) and Trent agreed we would wait.  He first said we would wait until Summer and then later that day said how about getting a fish in Spring.  I told him that would be fine.  And so the life of having goldfish begins.

R.I.P. Vader