A Fish Called Wiggles
We have four gold fish. Their names are Mr Wiggles, Miss Emmy, Billy and Rosetta. The last three are recent additions after the demise of Gold Fin. For no apparent reason Gold Fin became ill and died.
I can see you wrinkling up your noses and saying, ‘Gold fish? What is she on about?’
The circumstances around Gold Fin’s death was touching.
This is why.
For over a year Gold Fin and Mr. Wiggles swam in their tank, chasing each other, banging noses and swimming through the fake barrel we had in there. They appeared content. They also grew very big….about the size of the palm of an adult’s hand.
Both were multi coloured. Mr Wiggles is orange with patches of black and blue. He has a wonderful tail measuring as long as his body flowing behind him in a cloudy wave.
Gold Fin had more blue in his colouring and, as his name suggests, he had a golden tail….not as magnificent as Wiggles’ tail but still beautiful.
One day Gold Fin slowed down. He struggled to keep his fins palpitating and his stomach bloated. Mr Wiggles swam beside him and nudged him every so often to keep him swimming.
It took us awhile to realise Gold Fin was ill. We asked at the Pet Shop what to do but they had no answers for us so we watched helplessly as Gold Fin became more sluggish. Before many days had passed Mr Wiggles was constantly at his side, sliding under him when needed to push him up to the surface. They swam this way for days. It reminded me of the Hollies song, “He aint heavy, he’s my brother.”
There seemed to be no limit to Mr Wiggles patience as he pushed Gold Fin about the tank.
One morning we found Gold Fin had died over night. Mr Wiggles was beside him, tail floating behind him as he tried to get his friend to swim again to no avail. We took him out and Mr Wiggles just hung in the water, head down, tail down doing the minimum amount of breathing and not moving.