Ode to the Goldfish

The last floating goldfish is still in the pond, making me feel bad. I did my best by them, tried to find out what we would need to do for keeping them alive in the pond over winter. The nice young man at the garden centre was very sure the pond was deep enough and as long as I could dig a hole through the ice and snow once the Spring thaw started, the goldfish would be fine. Well, something went wrong. Maybe it was the long winter and all the tons of snow we had this season past. Everyone is saying it was a very long and cold winter. The taxi driver who gave me a ride from the grocery store today said he hasn't seen a winter this cold and snowy since 2001. It's really unfair of those goldfish to die this way.

Before the winter I made sure to keep them fed. I was even getting to know them a bit, on an individual basis. I never did quite manage to count them all. They just didn't stay in place long enough and then there always seemed to be a few hiding down deeper in the pond. I was feeling kind of sad for that one guy that always seemed to be alone, the left over one, the guy no one else would play with. But, really, the more I watched the more it seemed to be all his own fault. He just kept swimming out from the group, didn't give any of the other fish a chance to be friendly and get to know him.

Now they are all gone. All just floating bodies, buried in the garden now. My brother used a shovel to flip them all out on a day when there was still ice in the pond. He missed three. Or they were just stuck somehow. I tried to get them with the shovel but they kept slipping off the end. Plus, the pond really stinks. More than just stinky, it's gut wrenchingly gross. Not so bad now that time has passed, the ice has melted and the water has been exposed to the elements a few weeks.