A Tribute to Our Fish

I was leaving the house with Sam on Friday morning when he pointed into the pond. I didn't see any fish, but I noticed the fishing boy statue was knocked down. It's been knocked down a few times in the last couple of weeks, so I didn't really think anything of it. But then I turned around and saw a very strange sight. There was what looked to be a large trout in our flower bed. It turned out to be our oldest koi, Fred! He looked so flat and big that I didn't recognize him. He was still gulping, so I picked him up gently and set him into the pond. I called John out of the house. We didn't see any other fish in the pond. Evidently the heron struck again.

Sam and I left, and John told me later that Fred didn't look too well. He was floating on his side. John said he took a hold of him and drug him through the water to help circulate the water through him. Then Fred started to swim better. So far, so good. I don't know how long he was out of the water. It's really hard to tell if he'll make it. But we swore that if he did survive, we'd put the new pond in the back this summer. And John's going to put up some fishing wire across the pond to deter more birds. If Fred makes it, he really is a trooper. He must not taste very good either.

Anyway, this is a tribute to our x-fish. We had two smaller koi, Barney & Wilma, and seven goldfish. Sam really liked feeding them every afternoon.