2004-08-05

Lucky the Goldfish

Lucky. I think that's what I'll be calling the goldfish that returned from the other side. Lucky, known by some as floppydumbshit, was the first fish to move into our garden pond. This little fish has grown quite rapidly and seems to be enjoying life in our little pond ecosystem.

Tuesday afternoon my dad comes home after running a few errands and after standing at the office window for a moment notices that the fish is laying in the mulch outside of the pond. I thought he was joking because we'd just been watching the little shit thirty minutes earlier so I looked and sure enough little floppydumbshit (who has nearly flopped out of the pond on two prior occasions) had finally succeeded in launching onto dry land.

Damn, damn, damn. We'd just been commenting on how big our little floppy was getting and now... dead, dead, dead. I picked the little guy (or girl) up and looked closely to confirm death... seemed dead to me as there was no movement at all. The skin was partially dry and I'd guess the little feller had been laying in the sun, out of the water for 5 - 10 minutes. I placed little floppy in the water to see if there might be a spark of life and after 30 seconds nothing. At this point I'd concluded he was dead as dead could be and started walking towards the woods where I thought our little fish would return to the cycle.

I don't know why but after 10 footsteps I decided not to give up and returned to the pond. I knew this was hopeless but I wanted to try one more time. I put Lucky into the water and began to move him back and forth. Earlier my mom had suggested that squeezing him gently... like massaging him might help (I'd kinda giggled at the thought of this fish on an emergency room bed getting the full treatment). As I moved him through the water I started squeezing just a little bit for a second then release.

Now, I'm not kidding here. After a minute of this I thought I saw Lucky's mouth move just a little but I couldn't tell if this was the result of my squeezing or if it was real. Twenty seconds later I saw it again and then again. Within about three minutes it was obvious that Lucky was, apparently, returning to life. Ten minutes later and our little feller was slowly swimming again. Now, what I want to know, is if this fish was dead or just in some other state. What does dead mean really? If an organism dies out of some sort of shock but still has a healthy body how long can it be dead and still be brought back?

I suppose this is nothing new though it's probably not every day that an animal seemingly dies and then returns to life. It is a strange experience to see it with your own eyes. No, not strange: amazing.