I think our fish has arthritis

You never really think about a fish getting to be elderly, do you?

Winnie has a beta fish, I think they are supposed to live from 3 to 5 years and hers has been around about that long now. This is fishy number 2. Fishy number 1 died fairly soon after we got it.

Unlike in the movies, you can pull the a switchero without your kid becoming wise to it.

We probably would have told her that fishy died if it weren't for the fact that we coincidently had a peek into what that world would be like when we read a story about a kid whose fish died. She was 2 or 3 years old and she cried at the thought of fishy dying, every night for a week. Fishy died that same week of her freaking out about it -- that's the law of pets and parenting: parent says, "Fishy is not going to die any time soon" = dead fish swimming = "mommy is a liar".

Well, mom doesn't have to be a liar when there is a pet store full of blue and red beta fish just up the street. Fishy number two has proved to be a hardy fish. When she dies her second death we will be able to tell the truth about it.

Now that fishy is getting old, we've had several false deaths to prepare ourselves with. Fishy used to swim around all day or if she was hanging out, her fins would be in motion as she hung in a plant. Now she will lay motionless on the bottom of the tank and we will all gather round and stare to see if she is dead. Since we are used to her swimming to the top at the sight of people, we get convinced that she must be dead with all of us looking in and nothin.

Just when we've concluded her death, she snaps out of her fishy seizure and starts swimming again. She looks a little bent and doesn't float as effortless as she used to -- it's kind of like her head floats and she's dragging her body along for the ride. Something important to buoyancy has definitely stopped working.

We give her a really good senior discount on the food and she's hanging in there. Hope her golden years are the best ever.