Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Waaaay Back When-sday, Episode 6...Pets of Years Past

Call me Ishmael,
Moby-Dick


When I was a kid, and living with my parents and younger sister, we had 2 fish.

I don't remember exactly where they came from...but I'm pretty sure they belonged to someone who didn't want them anymore.

Orphan fish.

Very sad.

One was white and one was black - with big, bulging eyes.



The white fish was Moby, the black one was Dick.

The names were cute............

................until Moby died.

It was death by golf ball.

The golf ball was in the tank for a reason.

(Mom - why was there a golf ball in their tank?????)

Anyway, one day, aforementioned golf ball came loose from it's moorings, dropping on poor unsuspecting Moby.

The impact was fatal.

It burst his swim bladder, propelling him into a life (albeit short) of floating on his side.

(sigh)

When CSI arrived on scene. All that was found was a floating, soon to be dead fish, and a golf ball at the bottom of the tank. We'll never truly know what happened that fateful evening.

From them on, we just had Dick the fish.

Dick wasn't young when we got him...and he lived at least 8 or so years at our house.

Dick was a couch potato? Aquarium potato?? Ah, hell....Dick liked to watch TV.

It's true. We noticed he always hung out in one corner in his tank. After careful observation, we found that corner was always the one closest to the TV.

Every time we rearranged the living room furniture....Dick would find a new favorite place to swim. And it was always, always, the corner closest to the TV.

If the TV was on.....he just sat and watched....and watched.

He was an addict.

"Hello, I'm Dick the fish. And I'm a TV addict."

"Hello Dick!"


An orphaned fish, survived the loss of his tank mate, and an addict.

Poor little fella.


Photo Source

12 comments:

Brook said...

What a sweet sad little story. Maybe you guys should have gotten him a Jane. Then you could have had "Fun With Dick and Jane".
*giggling*
We had a blackmoore golfish that we named Dog(he looked like a pug to me-what can I say?)but he died young.
Now I have kitchen fish. I love my current kitchen fish. His name is Red. He loves me too. I can tell.

Nej said...

I would love to have a kitchen fish!!! I used to have a fish on my desk at work, when I worked at the zoo. I still have the tank and accessories sitting empty in the basement.

I keep thinking it would look cool on top of the fridge. With the new deck, when you look in the kitchen window, you look straight across at the top of my fridge.

Can't hide things up there anymore. :-)

Dick and Jane....if only we had thought of that!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Brook said...

I want a 10-15 gallon tank full of danios and real plants. If I ever get a over the stove microwave I could put the tank where the countertop micro is now. It would be so cool. I love fish.

Nej said...

Oh gosh, you would have loved our house before we moved then. 50 gallon with tetras, 75 gallon with cichlids, 55 gallon with discus, 40 gallon with Puffer......

Too much work to keep them all going, or we'd still have them. Love fish!!!!!

mo.stoneskin said...

You guys aren't that great at golf right?

Reminds me of a cruel school friend who used to scare fish with a BB gun. Not to hit them, just to scare them. He was a bad lad. I'm assuming you didn't chuck the golf ball in there?!

Nej said...

@ Mo - When people ask me if I golf, my answer is "well, I own a nice set of clubs. Luckily, when golfing I either hit it really far, and straight as an arrow....or I miss it altogether.

I swear...there was a real reason for a golf ball to be in that tank. It was holding something down.

Mom- back me up on this one!!! Mom!! (She picks this week to not read my blog - figures.)

:-)

Slyde said...

my son went thru 5 fish in 3 weeks last summer.. its got to be a damn record. He's been pushing for us to try it again.. we shall see..

Nej said...

@ Slyde - Hello and Welcome!!!

5 fish in 3 weeks?? Holy crap...that's allot of fish. Were all five COD's the same....or did he mix it up a little? Starvation, poisoning, etc, etc?? :-)

Slyde said...

im not sure exactly. All i know was the end result was 5 dead fish flushed down the toilet 5 different times..

Kez said...

awww. so now I know the story. i have to say that's a unique way for a fish to die!

Amy said...

I just read this and am still giggling about Dick watchin TV...very funny. :) thanks for the laugh Nej

Nej said...

@ Kez - if it wasn't for the cause of death, Moby would be just another fish, right? :-)

@ Amy - we laughed forever the day we realized what he was doing. :-)