Squiggly ???

Squiggly is not doing so well.

(Squiggly being the beta fish Gemma got as a present about a year ago and spent his first 6 weeks in a cut off plastic bottle; would have lived there longer without thoughtful friends who gave Gemma a fish bowl for Christmas. Anyway.)

It looks like he has swallowed a marble. His gut is very round and swollen, and sort of turning white-ish. His side fins are all stringy and falling apart. His overall colour is poor; very dark and cloudy. I have no idea what to do!!! I mean, he is obviously suffering. We are terrible pet owners. Haven't cleaned his bowl in like 6 weeks. We feed him sporadically. But do I have it in me to kill a fish?? And my friends say that just flushing him down the pipe is not a good idea: they can live down in the pipes!!! Well, I don't want him to suffer down there, either! So do I let him alone, to die in his own way??? Yuck yuck yuck.


One of the many reasons we are NOT pet people.

School 180

Gemma is at the point where she says several times a week, "I love my school!" Pheww, I am so thankful. AND her teachers wrote in her communication book on Tuesday that "Gemma speak much Chinese today." Wow, another miracle.