An ode to my fish

Peanut Butter Patty : March 3. 2016 –  Aug 25. 2019

A blue finned bestfriend that will never be forgotten. 

Oh wet pet, I didn’t know the day my best friend’s tank would have to leave my shelf. I had no warning.

For my birthday in 2016 I was gifted a baby blue beta fish from Petco. I named him Peanut Butter Patty, solely because it was Girl Scout season and those are my favorite cookies. 

Soon after, I was enamored with his presence. He lived swimmingly on the third shelf of my bookcase for three years. I taught him tricks and told him my secrets. 

I left to go to a cross country camp for two days and didn’t even think of reminding my mom to feed him. When I got home I was eating dinner with my family and remembered I needed to feed him. I was absolutely horrified when I realized I had forgotten. 

I raced to my room.

The lifeless body of Peanut Butter Patty laid across the top of the rocks.

I was devastated.

After crying out all the sorrow and saying my goodbyes, we decided the best way to let him go was to allow his spirit to swim freely in the Stone Creek pond. 

We sent him on his way floating on a leaf while I played his favorite tunes on my wooden kazoo. I wasn’t sure how to act when he was dead because it is just a little fish. 

But he was my friend for three years.

Tears were shed but my mom comforted me through it, my dad played memorial music, my brothers laughed, my sister documented the whole tragic story then posted it all over her SnapChat.

The next day at school I was given many condolences from all her viewers.