HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

THREE YEARS FOR JEEP & PRINCESS FLIP-FLOP!!
The best friends a guy could ever ask for!
In honor of their third anniversay, here is another re-print from a year ago.
I love you both!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRIEDRICH!!!
This isn't Friedrich, it's his stunt double.


Yesterday (6/18/2007) my betta turned 2 years old. He started life as an orphan at the pet store. Then one magical day he and his four brothers were hand selected (by yours truly) for their solid blue coloring to sit in a place of honor as center pieces for the wedding reception of my best friends. (Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary Jeep & Princess Flip-Flop!!!) It was an enchanting evening as they were surrounded by hoards of admirers. “What a celebration!” they thought, “These nice people are throwing such a wonderful party to honor our release from the orphanage!”

But alas, the party ended and they found they were still in fact homeless. But some of the guests took pity on the poor fish and began adopting them one by one. They were a little sad to be separated from their brothers, but not too sad. After all, they are all male Siamese Fighting Fish, so they never learned to work and play well with others. He was sad because most of his brothers had already been adopted. He wondered if anybody would ever love him. But then a very nice couple picked him up and carried him away.

On the bumpy car ride home he almost got sea-sick (kind of ironic, huh.) But despite all the sloshing around, he could hear his new Mama and Daddy discussing what his name should be. “Wow! A name of my very own, to set me apart from all the rest. How exciting! I hope they pick a good one!” Then his daddy (who was very handsome, by the way) suggested a name that he had heard several times that weekend. A name that wasn’t degrading and embarrassing like “Mr. Bubbles” or “Finny”. A name that no other fish would have. The middle name of his friend who was married. The name was Friedrich! “FRIEDRICH!! I HAVE A NAME!!! MY NAME IS FRIEDRICH! Oh, what a wonderful name!” Friedrich was so excited he nearly jumped out of his bowl.

Mama and Daddy were very generous. They gave him a larger bowl and decorated it with colorful rocks. And they gave him a wonderful little cave that he could swim through and hide under. Mama and Daddy clapped and cheered the first time he was brave enough to swim completely through the top of the cave.

Mama and Daddy were a little silly. When they would leave for work they would say things like, “Friedrich, you better have that kitchen clean by the time we get back.” Or, “You better not throw any wild parties while we’re gone.” And when they would get home they would say things like, “Friedrich, did you make this mess in here? Bad fishy!”

Friedrich would get very confused, “But I stayed in my bowl! I’m a good fish!”

Life was not always easy. Mama once dropped him on the floor when she was cleaning his bowl for the first time. She picked him up and he was OK, but Mama never cleaned his bowl again. I guess it scared her as much as it scared Friedrich. And then they got a big cat named Pippin. One time, while everybody was away, Pippin drank the water in Friedrich’s bowl. “He sucked away half my universe!” But Pippin never tried to hurt Friedrich and eventually they learned to co-exist. They would even sit together on the very top of the tall desk.

But then they got another cat…The Bad One. The little demon called Galileo. At first Galileo was too small to get to Friedrich, but before long Galileo could jump up to the counter and he was very eager to explore. He would knock the cover off the top of the bowl and sometimes stick his paw or face into the bowl. The bowl is plastic and it now has claw marks on it that show how Galileo played too roughly. The Little Terror was very frightening.

Daddy seemed to move around a lot. Friedrich didn’t like moving. It was very stressful and Friedrich was starting to get old. He had out-lived all his brothers. For a long time he had trouble finding his food at the top of his bowl. The day before his second birthday, Daddy moved him to a new home. Daddy told him “Happy birthday!” as he went to work the next morning, and even sang to him after he got home. Friedrich was very excited about his birthday. Two years is very old for a betta. But he did not have the strength to go any longer. Before his birthday was finished his spirit went to The Great Aquarium in the Sky.

Daddy moved him one last time. This time he was moved to a different kind of bowl. The sides of this bowl were not clear. Instead they were solid white, and there was a long tunnel at the bottom. The water started to swirl around and around, but this time he did not get sea sick. No, he would never be sick again. He went very quickly through the tunnel and was laid to rest in a giant cave, much larger than the cave he called home for so long.

The End

In Loving Memory of my Little Blue Baby.