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It is December 5, 2007 and it looks like Winter has finally arrived in Michigan. Just the other day I was laughing because I was still raking up leaves and closing up the family RV for the winter, something that should have been done at the end of September.

Although we consider ourselves as a "pet oriented" family, having two Jack Russell's and an old grumpy cat; we never really considered ourselves as "fish" people. We did however move in the surviving gold fish from our outdoor pond.

Because these gold fish endured the summer swimming in the pond without falling victim to the elements or neighborhood stray cats, we thought they deserved to be brought into the house. My son and I set out to purchase a fish tank and accessories to make them a cute home that would sit in our living room for all to enjoy.

Retrieving the fish from the pond became an event that we still talk about today. I along with my father, husband and son set out to make it a smooth transition for the fish. We had a net, a bucket of water and two curious pooches! The first fish was easy, he was a large (fat) fancy gold fish, he made into the bucket and began swimming around. As we were all searching for the other regular feeder fish, I heard my son scream "Fat George!" Apparently the fish had a name and our youngest pooch had him (I refer to the fish as him due to the name, not that we really know the sex of it or the other fish) in her mouth! Our son's scream startled her and she dropped the fish to the ground. We all stood there for a moment in shock and disappointment that "Fat George" was now dead. I went to pick him up and thought, just possibly, he could still be alive. I placed him pack into the bucket of water, and to our amazement he started to swim! We all cheered with delight and went on to find the other fish as our son stood watch over the bucket. The remaining transfer of the fish went without any further incident.

The fish have been in the house for over 3 months and we have sadly lost a few. My favorite "one eye" past away within a few weeks. He looked to be blind in one eye and didn't seem to eat very well. There was two others that passed just a few weeks after "one eye" that we didn't have the chance to name. We now have two left, "Fat George" and the other just recently name "Lucky."

"Lucky" has become very dear to our hearts. It was about two weeks ago I came home from work to find him laying at the bottom of the tank on his side. His tail was gone and he had black on

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