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orange to albino to orange, at whim. One day my son came to me very distraught. One of the gold fish - the albino one, was being attacked by the other gold fish. On examination of the scene of the crime, I found this to be indeed the case. One fish that appeared to be somewhat bloated was being relentlessly pursued by the other four gold fish. Even in the fish world, I thought, there is some form of bullying. The one fish that was different was being picked on. My maternal instinct took over, I must protect this unfortunate creature. So I did what any good parent would do, I removed the persecuted fish to a smaller aquarium and scolded its attackers.

Shortly after, I noticed there was a real mess in the aquarium. What is going on I pondered. There were hundreds of tiny white speckles all over the aquarium where the albino fish was housed. I was bewildered. Was it some kind of foreign invasion? I sought my husband's advice, he had no idea. I thought of again of employing emergency measures and transport the unfortunate fish to another safe place. As I was planning the move, my young son decided to give me an education in the facts of life. "Mom", he said in a somewhat obliging tone, "those are eggs, the fish is breeding". So there is some merit to sex education classes in school. Alas, I was overcome with embarrassment. I quickly tried to read all about gold fish spawing habits and realized all too late that I had separated the female fish and without the male to fertilize the eggs, the eggs were doomed. I mourned the loss of the fish that never had a chance to hatch. Had they survived, I would have had a ready supply of hardy acclimatized pond fish for the coming spring.

That spring, the fish were transported to the pond again. A cherry tree planted next to the pond had grown considerably, and the fragrant profuse flowers gave me a sense that this was the year I would see my first crop of cherries. A long legged frog had make its home around the pond, hopping casually from rock to rock, and taking the occasional dip in the pond. One hot day , early summer I was feeding the fish when to my surprise I noticed tiny black live foreign beings rising to the surface. Amazed I took a closer look as more swarmed to the top. I swallowed, my heart thumped, I screamed with delight again and again, and called for back up. I counted and lost count, my family counted and gave up. We finally settled on a figure of about 45 fish, eagerly skimming the surface, of the water, waiting

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