By Carol Sustaire of Uphill Home
A 32-year-old mother was caught replacing her daughter’s deceased pet fish with a live one.
The mother, Julie Smith of Atlanta, was dumping the betta fish remains in the guest bathroom toilet when her 4-year-old daughter walked in.
“She asked me why I was dumping Sparky into the toilet and why he wasn’t swimming around in there,” Smith told investigators Friday. “I tried to distract her with the new fish, but she wasn’t fooled this time.”
Smith says it started out as a typical Saturday morning, but then events took a turn for the worse.
After being awoken the usual way, with a tiny plea for an elaborate breakfast at 6:10 a.m., Smith stumbled into the kitchen for her coffee and discovered her daughter’s pet fish, floating lifeless in the glow-in-the-dark tank.
The mother alerted her husband, Joe, who immediately downloaded new episodes of Sofia the First to buy them precious time while Julie quickly left to purchase a replacement pet before her preschooler noticed.
“I knew I had to replace it or I’d have to explain the circle of life and get stuck having a fish funeral all day,” Smith says of her actions. “We just didn’t have time for that. We had a soccer game!”
Smith admitted this wasn’t the first time she had exchanged a pet. She had been artfully swapping the fish, every time it died, for the past two years.
“Look, I don’t even know how many times I’ve replaced that damn fish,” Smith confessed. “Eight? Ten? It dies once every few months! All I know is I’d do it again.”
Once caught, Smith had to console her daughter for a solid hour and make promises to celebrate the short life of Sparky with outrageously-priced frozen yogurt.
The fish, a common blue betta, appeared to have died as a result of normal toddler care, such as overfeeding and petting. It is unknown whether the family will proceed with a standard backyard burial or a flush.
[easy-tweet tweet=”I don’t even know how many times I’ve replaced that damn fish” user=”SamPsychMeds” usehashtags=”no”]*****
About the Author
Carol Sustaire is the mother of five with a necessary sense of humor. She spends her weekdays glued to the seat of the minivan, and weekends as a yard sale aficionado and professional face painter. She can be found posting her latest funky yard sale treasures on Facebook, and writing awesome treasures on Uphill Home.