In the Summer of 2004, during one of our annual outings to the Ascension festival, Carolyn and I treated Ashleigh to a few games of ‘throw-the-ping-pong-ball-into-the-outrageously-colored-water-in-a-goldfish-bowl’ challenges. After tossing a few dozen balls, Ashleigh finally made one into the bowl where she won a free…drumroll…goldfish. Assuming that this fish would be dead in a matter of hours after bringing him home, we complacently shoved him into a clear Pyrex bowl and waited out his life.
After a few days, we found he was still alive. Therefore, Ashleigh gave him a name: Bob Satterfield, not to be confused with my friend Bob Satterfield the man. Bob was a nice fish, very cordial and polite. He did, however, display an unprecedented eagerness to be fed. When we approached his bowl, he would flail around like a child in a kiddie-pool. awaiting the morsels. We kept him on a steady diet of fish food…no desserts.
For Christmas in 2004, Carolyn and I got Ashleigh a real fish bowl, some rocks and a toy car to put into Bob’s bowl. Bob’s moving day was shortly after the holidays and he made the transition quite nicely, seemingly thrilled with his new luxurious surroundings. He continued to survive, enjoying every minute of swimming during the 2005 year.
For Christmas in 2005, I got Ashleigh a kitten. Her name was Tiny and she was hell on paws. On two occasions, Tiny knocked Bob’s bowl to the ground from the kitchen counter, the street on which Bob lived. When Ashleigh came home from school one day following the second fall, she discovered Bob sprawled out by the refridgerator. Bob wasn’t moving. He had seemingly been on the floor hours.
Ashleigh was panicked and called a friend to express her dismay. After a while, Ashleigh went back into the kitchen to clean up the mess and saw a glimmer of movement in Bob’s gill. She hurriedly put Bob back in some water where he quickly sprang to life. This is why Bob became known as the miracle fish.
Bob survived for another six months or so. He finally passed away on July 18, 2006 (the date printed in our Christmas newsletter was incorrect), just two days after Ashleigh and I returned home from the Augusta Sons of the Desert convention. As far as we know, he had not been molested by Tiny, dying of natural fish causes. Bob received a one-flush salute. He was a good fish.
Leave a Reply