Goodbye Old Friend.

Ted our fish, was a good ole Beta. Here's his story:

We were at Walmart one day and while passing by the fishes, Matt and I said, "let's get one!". Since Beta's are not a lot of maintenance, and they like to be by themselves, we decided on that kind of fish. There were many to choose from. Blue, and red, skinny and fat, small and large. The red one with grayish scales on his face, was old and not as pretty as the others but, gave us a show. He looked at Matt while Matt looked at him and followed his finger along his fish bowl. But, he was old and we didn't want to get a fish that would die on us the next day so, we grabbed the blue one and started to walk away. Matt looked back at the red beta and noticed the fish had turned his back on us and went to the back of the tank. It was like he said, "another one gone and after all that work!".

So, needless to say, we put the blue fish down and grabbed the red one and soon, he was happy and full of personality in our home and part of the Ferguson family! Ted would flare his gills at us when he would see us in the morning. He still followed our finger around the tank. He was a happy little beta. I'm glad he chose us.

He hung with us for about 3 years(he even traveled in the front seat, buckled in, from Washington to Montana). About a month ago, I realized he was losing his spunk. And a week ago, he was watching us eat dinner and later that night, he was gone.

This was a good opportunity to teach Will about death. We had a family home evening and discussed how we have a spirit and it's in our bodies and when we die, our spirit lives on with Heavenly Father and our body gets laid to rest. On one special day, our spirit will be reunited with our perfected bodies. Will seemed to grasp this concept. He was so very sad and cried when he realized Ted was dead. It was so sweet and sincere. He said Ted was still happy and that he loved him and brings Ted up in conversation every now and again. It's sweet to see that he had such an attachment to something as small as a fish and that he would truly miss him.

We found a spot in the woods to have a burial for Ted. Matt dug the hole. Will placed his casket in the ground.

We covered a check box with brown paper and Will helped me decorate it.

The boys helped dad cover him with dirt.

We said some parting words.

We fashioned a cross with grass and sticks and picked some wildflowers to place on his grave. Goodbye old friend, til we meet again.