The swift flush of death

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that Madison's fish died about a month ago. We didn't have the heart to tell her that her precious Cinderella had died, so we quickly replaced the fish. She was none the wiser.

Fast forward to today. This morning we received the sad news that Mike's parent's cat, Buddy, had to be put to sleep last night. He had unexpectedly gone into kidney failure and there was nothing they could do.

Then, we got home after work and discovered the fish had died again.

Hmmm...these things come in three's...I wonder what is next???

Madison asked why her fishy was floating upside down. So, we explained that her fishy got sick and died. That it went to fishy heaven, just like Old Grandma went to be with Jesus in Heaven. She knows its a pretty cool place, because she thinks Old Grandma is with Jesus and eating all the ice cream and cookies that she could ever want. That's a pretty good idea of Heaven, so we'll run with it!

Mike helped her scoop the fish up in the net and carry it to the bathroom. We had a little fishy funeral that ended with a ceremonious flush.

As we went back to the kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes, Madison asked why her fishy had died. We explained that God had decided the fishy's time was done and God needed her for something else now. We weren't sure how to explain something that we truly don't understand ourselves.

I decided it was probably time to tell her about her Grandparent's cat, Buddy.

So I said, "Madison, do you remember Grandpa's kitty? The one named Buddy?"

She said, "yea, he is mean to me."

I kind of laughed and said "That's the one!" I went on to say, "Madison, Grandpa's kitty got sick last night and he had to go to kitty Heaven. Grandpa is really sad about it."

She thought for a minute and then said:

Are you ready for it???

"Did Grandpa flush Buddy down the toilet too?"