Poor Gilbert

Do you remember Gilbert? This was the fish that Cullen got for his birthday this year. Last night before putting the boys to bed I fed Gilbert. This morning after I had made the boys breakfast I went to feed Gilbert again.

But instead this is what I found...

I couldn't find Gilbert in the fish tank. I immediately started to panic. I call the boys to come to the living room and help me look for Gilbert. I started to sort of shake the tank around thinking maybe he was hiding in one of the shells or under some of the rocks. I asked Geremu and Cullen if they took Gilbert out of the tank. They both told me they didn't and I believed them, Gilbert was in the tank right before I put the boys down for bed.

We all had our heads smashed up against the table looking into the tank when out of the corner of my eye I spoted something. I screamed, the boys asked me why I screamed. At his point I started yelling for Nick to come downstairs.

He sees what I see...

Gilbert smashed between the edge of the table and the hanging table leaf, dried out and not looking good. Ugh... my heart sank and I'm not a huge animal lover but I can't stand the though of any living thing suffering.

Nick picked up the fish and asked the boys how Gilbert got out of the water. The boys just looked at Nick. I'm pretty certain that were as bewildered as we were. All of a sudden Nick throws the fish back into the water.

I looked at him wondering what he was doing and he says, "I think the fish just moved." We all bend down to get a closer look at the fish. Holy Aunt Hannah, Gilbert's gills were moving. He was so dried out that his body didn't move much. After a few minutes of soaking up moisture Gilbert started moving around a little more. His scales started sort of flaking off at this point and I start to video the early (or late depending, on how you look at it) Christmas miracle.

We are assuming that Gilbert jumped out of the water at some point this morning. His gills have been moving most of the day and he goes between short spurts of swimming around really crazy and just bobbing on the bottom of the tank. I think that we are just prolonging the inevitable at this point. We don't know what to do because his gills are still moving but he isn't his usual self, if you know what I'm saying. I don't want him to be in pain but I hate to flush him alive. An import lesson was learned today, always keep a top on a fish bowl.

As if we didn't have enough animal drama today Cullen caught a toad. This provided quite a bit of entertainment for the boys. I couldn't take my eyes off of them for fear that they would hold the toad just a little to tight.

They did a pretty good job offering the toad a place to stay...

as well as, a form of transportation during his short stay.

But all good things must come to an end, the toad is hopefully now back safe with his family.

In other news, Geremu's shoes went missing recently but don't worry, Nick found them.