The Life of a Fish: My dear friend, you will be missed

Today, my little goldfish died. After three months of a life together, he has left me. I came home from work and he was sitting on the bottom of his jar, unusually still. I thought, "Maybe he is hungry." So I fed him. But he did not move. Not one twitch of a muscle. Only the labored sucking of water through his gaping mouth. Opening and closing. Opening and closing. I thought he might not be hungry, so I left for a few minutes, but when I came back I found him in a somewhat more compromised position. He was beginning to tilt to one side. I thought a change of water might be just what he needed, but as I prepared to change his water I noticed a pile of fish poopies at the bottom of the jar. I remembered that in preparation for death, the body releases all of its waste...the final defecation. That is when I knew that this was the beginning of the end. I tried to will it back to life, to talk it through this tough situation and give it a reason to live. I yelled at it, screaming that it wasn't his time to go, that he was still needed here, that he needed to try to move, to swim, to eat. Alas, all was in vain. My little fishy died at 7:53 pm on January 13, 2010. Now I leave my last words to him in this eulogy.


Eulogy for my little fishy:

People may say that fish are not meant to be pets. All they do is swim around a tank sucking water. I beg to differ. My little fishy was different. He was like family to me, and I was like family to him. This loss has been hard. Some people say money cannot buy love, but I proved those people wrong when I bought my little fishy. I will always remember that blessed sunny afternoon that I bought him. He was the fastest of the bunch, darting this way and that and swimming hard to get away from the net of the Walmart employee who was trying to capture a fish--any fish--for me. Surprisingly enough, that fast swimmer was caught up in the net and became mine to love. I felt bad taking him away from all his little goldfish friends, but I knew that I would give him a better home where he could be happy.

Little fishy felt right at home from the moment I plopped him into his new fishbowl. With the colorful rocks on the bottom to the thriving green plant on the top, my little fishy had his own fishy paradise. He swam around that bowl around and around and around and around. He was so excited to have his own place. We had many good times while he swam in that fishbowl. I remember coming home from work and watching the little fellow fly around in the water. Whenever I fed him he would rush to the top of the fishbowl and pick out the best fish food pellets to eat first. I think beta fish food was his favorite, although I never fed him anything else. Even though some days I forgot to feed little fishy, he never complained. He never was a complainer. He just took everything as it came, good or bad. When I remembered to feed him again, he was so happy. I think I almost saw a smile on his little guppy face once or twice. What a trouper. I never imagined he would die so soon.

Early on after I adopted little fishy I tried to name him, but nothing stuck: Goldie, Thunder, Lightening, Silverback, Horseshoe, Seahorse, Lucky. He was just too good for anything that I could come up with. I know he has been given a good name now in his fishy heaven. He always was too good for this life. I will always remember my little fishy. May his little fishy body rest in peace. Goodbye now little fishy...until we meet again.