An inadvertent fish killer

Now before you call PETA, please let me explain. It is true, I am not an animal lover, but I am not an animal hater. I would never kick a dog (I admit to kicking a cat once, but he was the spawn of Satan himself and jumped on my feet so the kick was a reaction ... Harry did not attack my feet after that, lesson learned!) I am allergic to most furry animals, so it is just best we live in different worlds. However, I like fish. I always have, and I always will. My fish Gwen died last month, I had her for a few years. I already am planning where a nice aquarium will live in my house. Since I want a nice big one I have a plan for buying it over time so I do not go broke buying fish. There is the back story, so when you hear the current fish dilemma you will be more understanding of how traumatic this is for me ... and the fish. I am not a serial fish killer.

I really wanted to dress the set of The Curious Savage with some fun treasures. People in the cast have put a small personal object on the set that is just theirs. I have a giraffe that my Mom gave me last year, there is a Navy hat, a pair of shoes, sheet music, the Thinker, etc. I thought it would be fun for the cast, and it was! I also added a bowl of goldfish to the set; it sits on the bookcase which was brilliantly dressed by Craig. I bought 3 goldfish at first (these are the 15 cent feeder goldfish, by the way) and all three lasted a week, and then died. Their names were The, Curious, and Savage. So then I went back to the store to replace them. The lady would not sell me 3 more fish, she would only sell me one at a time. (Story for another day, and is best told in person!) Thinking that this fish might also die, I also bought a beta fish as a back-up. So fish #4, The Curious Savage, died after a week also. I guess these little 15 cent goldfish are bred now to live in filtered tanks only and not in bowls ... sad ... gone are the days of winning a goldfish at the State Fair and having it live for decades unless you have a filtered tank. Alas. So the beta fish became Fifth, The Curious Savage. Fifth for short

Since most of the fish died over the weekend when they were left at the theater alone, I decided to bring Fifth home with me during our 2 day break so that he would be taken care of. I decided yesterday to clean the bowl and give him new water (I know it is a he because they tell you what gender of beta you are buying.) So yesterday morning I washed the bowl, put new water in, put in the water conditioner for betas, and then put Fifth in a bag in the new water so they could become the same temp. When I got home from work, I pulled out the bag and tried to empty some of the excess water so the bowl would not overflow. Here is where things got tricky ...

Fifth is obviously a champion fish jumper. I had him isolated at the bottom of the bag and I will be darned if he did not jump over my fingers and straight down the drain ... of the side of the sink with the garbage disposal. Let me pause for a moment so you can just get a visual of this situation ...

Got it? It should look something like the escape attempts from Finding Nemo. All drains lead to the ocean, right? Well not this drain, Fifth, it leads to death ... a painful death!

I immediately swore and then turned on some water so it did not dry up too much down there and put in motion a plan to save the fish, I was not losing FIVE FISH in 2 weeks! It just was not going to happen. Then I swore again, this is a full disclosure blog, right?

Maybe at this point it is important to remind my viewers that I have a really big issue with germs. Really. Big. Issue. With. Germs. I took a deep breath, took the ring off my finger, and stuck my hand down the drain to save the fish. Gross. Luckily for me, it appears someone had recently run the disposal and there were no real big messes down there. That being said it still was slimyyuckygross (just one word would not do, all three even seem not enough.) I got the fish in my fingers and gingerly pulled him out of danger. Mission almost accomplished.

The bowl of water was right there so I introduced him to the water. Fifth just laid there for a while, like too long of a while, and had that look in his eyes like: Lady what are you doing to me? I was almost free. When he did start to move, he only moved his left side. I thought great, is this fish hurt and I am being inhumane by keeping him alive? (see I do have feelings about animals that are good.) I put a few food pellets in there, which were ignored. He mostly just laid there. Not moving. Bless his heart. I decided to give him 24 hours before I make a decision about replacing him. He bounced back and is using both sides of his body.

I tell you what, if Fifth can survive 2 more shows I would be happy to release him to the wild if that is what he wants. Maybe he just does not know that he is the star of a stage play. I bet if he understood that, he would not have jumped.