The Lazarus Betta

When we visited my dad's over the weekend, I noticed that one of his two bettas were gone...and the remaining one looked dead in its bowl. Dad confirmed the obvious -- that one had passed. However, he didn't know the second one was dead until I pointed it out.

No, wait, it wasn't dead. It was almost dead. It was barely alive so Gramma came to the rescue.

Rewind~
A little background on pseudo-doctor Gramma. Gramma used to be the acting pharmacist for my doctor grandpa's practice, when my dad and aunties were little. Growing up, Gramma was still the pharmacist of the family, who knew which medicines to give out. When I was little, Gramma truly believed in penicillin being the panacea. Consequently, I always took penicillin whenever I was sick/had an infection. (I also had to take dry ginseng powder -- which is a whole 'nother story/traumatic childhood memory.) In fact, Gramma thought penicillin was not only the panacea for humans, but also for animals. The few times my cousins' dogs appeared sick, she gave them penicillin. In later years, it was Tylenol.

Fast forward~
When Gramma heard the betta fish was almost dead, she instructed my dad to give it something. I didn't hear what, but I saw my dad drop something in the bowl. When we got back from the expo, I was certain the fish was going to die in the cloudy yellow water. I said to Dad, "I can't believe you put a pill in there! Like that's going to help the fish! It's going to die for sure now! Dad, you have to do something!"

Tonight, my dad left me a VM saying that his betta fish was totally alive and kickin'. I had to call him back to see what the deal was. He said he was just about to go to bed, but he needed to take care of his fish before he went to bed. He happily reported that it's totally alive b/c not only did he give it Centrum on Saturday, but since yesterday, he has given it vitamin C and DHEA (in equal passing time durations) and he was just about to give it some "Move-Free" so that it would "swim more freely."

I couldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes. I definitely inherited the "come up with crazy ideas" gene from my dad. :)