Octo

The Life of Octo with Luke (May 5, 2013-June 11, 2014)

For Luke's 8th birthday he asked for a fish. We were super sneaking and we were able to surprise him with a beautiful blue male betta fish. Luke, who is very cleaver with naming things, came up with the name Octo in honor of being an eighth birthday present. Such a great name.

Luke was so good at feeding him a few little fish food flakes and a little dried up brine shrimp most days. (It's okay for betta fish to miss a day of being feed.)

He lived on the edge of the bar between the family room and the kitchen. It was fun to look at him swimming around in his little tank while I was working in the kitchen.  

The past few days Octo hasn't looked too good. He'd hang out at the bottom of the tank at a funny angle. He didn't come to the top when it was feeding time. Sadly Luke knew it was Octo's final days. Luke looked at me with his sweet blue eyes all big and said with his serious voice, "he might have Ichthyosis colitis" It was so sweet to see how concerned he was about Octo, even with his cute summer freakly nose and blue eyes looking up at me. The term Ichthyosis colitis is something his learned off of an old Danny Kaye movie, Up In Arms (which is super funny and worth watching). Ichthyosis really is a human dry skin condition in which skin looks like fish scales and the Danny Kaye character is a hypochondriac that tells people they might have this disease. I do think that Octo may have really died from Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, which is the fish disease a.k.a. as "ich." Fish tend to have quick shallow breathes, hide in different places than normal, have no appetite, and hang out at the bottom of the tank. Poor Otco.

Luke decided to just have a burial for Octo in the backyard back by the firepit. Luke gently carried Otco's tank out to the backyard. Hunter attempted to dig a hole (Dallin finished it up--something about having a bit more height and muscle makes that easier). Lance said a few words that were so sweet. Luke really didn't want too much though. Then it was time to put Octo in his little grave. I was curious to see how Luke would do it. I didn't know if he'd pour Octo and the water from the tank into the grave or what. He surprised me by very tenderly putting his hand into the tank and sweetly cupping his hand around the little fish body and gently laying him in the ground. What a sweet, tender soul this boy has!