Introducing Sitka, no wait Buttercup

Meet Sitka, our new fish. This morning when I woke up to start the coffee, I looked for Beta who usually greets meet with his morning fish face. He was not there. No Beta in the tank. Speedy and Johnny Cash the snails were there, but no sign of any fish anywhere. I looked around the bowl, on the counter and on the floor- no Beta. I looked over at Ellie and she stared at me strangely, not willing to even lift her head. I woke David and asked if he had seen Beta, but he had no idea. He joined me in the futile search. I searched multiple times and finally came to the conclusion that Beta jumped ship. Because there was no body to be found, I guess that maybe Ellie heard the fish jumping commotion and gulped Beta down. I felt some sadness. I will miss Beta. He loved his food and I fed him, so I like to think we had a special connection. Now my thoughts turned to how do we tell Maren? We have no body to prove his passing. I certainly can't tell her that maybe Ellie ate him or Ellie would certainly be written off in Maren's book. I stewed about it all day, hoping Maren would not notice the missing fish. At dinner, we told her. Beta had jumped the bowl and we sent him back to the ocean. We went right to The Pet Zoo and picked a new fish. Maren cried and talked about how she liked Beta and we all shared our Beta memories. Maren even reminicsed about the two betas before Beta #3. Maren chose Beta #4 and named him Beta. She rode with him in the bag on her lap all the way home and changed his name to Sitka. Before I could finish this posting, she changed his name again to Buttercup. So we welcome Buttercup to the family. Rest in peace Beta- you were a good fish.