Banning update!
"It's a fishy miracle!" Michelle says with glee.
And thats what it seemed like. He was... almost catatonic this morning, after more than 24 hours passed since his... episode. I spent the past 2 days contemplating the most humane way to put him down instead of letting him slowly starve to death.
Flushing? No way. That's awful.
Letting him go in the stream in my back yard? The water is ice cold, he'd go into shock immediately. Humane, but hard to watch.
So, still troubled, I decide to go to the shop to visit Mom for a little while before coming home from work. I sit, we chat, and Uncle Tommy comes in. He's doing well, and getting some training by Mom so he can work there a few days a week. Very cute. He, being a buster, asks me why I tried to kill my fish. "That's not right," I say. Mom defended me, I stuck around for a while, BSing with the two of them, and headed back to check on my poor little guy. I decide to figuratively bang my head against the wall some more and try to feed him.
He moves... he goes towards the food...
HE EATS ONE!
I drop some more....
HE EATS ANOTHER ONE!
VICTORY!
I call Mom and tell her the good news. She is thrilled. The whole house was traumatized by this event.
I decided that there were enough bits of fin at the bottom of his bowl and changed the water, not filling it all the way this time in case he gets the idea in his head again that he can fly. I place him back in after the clean water has been deposited and he flits around for a while. Very encouraging.
After a while, Mom comes home and goes right to the fish. And he is swimming around! Holy crap! "That's more movement than we've seen in days!" She starts cooking dinner and Banning is everywhere. He is all a-flutter with excitement because there's cooking stuff all over the counter. It seems like he is fully recovered! Michelle came home from work to see us watching him and cheering and uttered that wonderful line up there. Dad came home and I told him the news; he is very, very happy. This affair upset me greatly and he felt very bad about that. So, now that the fish is better, the house is once again at peace.
This was a tough time for everyone because, well, no animal in this house has just passed quietly. Poor Danny, despite our best efforts, died crying and bleeding; my first fish ever was sucked up into the filter and died on my carpet while I slept. Luckily Dad found him and I didn't. My pet bunny, Snowball got sick and died. Again, my Dad, bless him, found the poor thing and buried him before I saw the carnage. And now my fish, my buddy for so long, dies of starvation because I cannot help him? Not cool. But, thankfully, that is not the case! May he live to blow millions more bubbles and die peacefully in his own little bowl.
And I got book VII of the Dark Tower series today. I need to do some more research, then I will go back to reading that some more.
And that's all that's new around here. A good day.