Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Sentimental Old Fool

The older I get the more sentimental I'm getting but tonight I really crossed into loopy land. Remember our fish Bert & Ernie & Garrett? Well boggly-eyed Bert died about a month ago and for the last two days our orange goldfish Ernie's been looking a bit off.

It's not down to being ill treated. Oh no. This goldfish tank has been pampered to death and I feel like the only other thing I can do for them would be to take them out each evening and lick them clean. The tank cost me 5 bucks at a yard sale and the set-up has cost a small fortune. As soon as I go to the local fish shop they must nudge each other and whisper "here comes Mrs Muggins again, let's see what we can fool her into buying this time".

The last 2 days Ernie has been listless, then started hiding under the filter, then rolled upside down and finally died tonight. While all this was going on Garrett (the Plecostomus) was hanging out with him, snuggling up to him and following him wherever he half-swam, half-floated along. At one point, as Ernie was gasping for breath, it looked like Garrett was trying to blow air in his mouth.

When I told Craig all this he burst out laughing and said "Pam, he's waiting for him to die so he can eat him". Then to hide my shame that once again I'd been a muppet, I said something about the mouth-to-mouth episode which only made him smile more and ask me to look out for a book at the fish shop that talks about fish giving each other CPR. What's really sad about all this is that not only do I feel foolish but I also feel sad. I was kind of wishing that fish liked each other, you know, like they do in Finding Nemo.

When I went to the fish shop tonight to buy a net so we could scoop Ernie out and give him the right send off down the loo, I went out on a limb and asked the salesperson if perhaps Garrett was Ernie's friend or was indeed waiting to suck him once dead, and she looked at me like she couldn't believe I'd asked and said "well he aint his friend".



RIP Ernie.
Now let's get you out of there before Garrett sucks your eyeballs out.

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