My Man Rick

It's weird to mourn a fish, right? Too bad.

That little guy was a great friend to me....he was a great listener. 

He came to our apartment in November 2011, as a prize won at a Japanese festival. Our friends had won him & about 15 or so other goldfish and were giving them out for free to people in our apartment complex (Rick outlived every single one of those other fish by well over a year!). We got two of the fish and almost immediately, two of our roommates thought it would be fun to have pet goldfish who lived in the toilet...

But Jessi saved them before they took a swim down the pipes. 

We figured they wouldn't live long, so we just got them a plastic tupperware bowl to live in. Jessi googled care instructions & we boiled their water before changing it & got them top-of-the-line fish food from Big Lots. 

I wanted to name the little guys after my favorite TV show. One fish was bigger than the other so I just assume he'd be male and the other female, so my idea was to name them Kate & Rick. But Jessi wanted to name one, so she named the smaller one Ciel and the bigger fish became Rick.

Side note: its a good thing I didn't get to name the smaller one Kate, because it died a couple weeks later, seemingly of an infected eye (it was inflamed when we got her). And if you know anything about my show Castle, Kate pretty much died in the show soon before we got the fish. That would be too much for me to handle.

Anyway, Rick became our man of the apartment! He was a great conversation starter too!

We were scared for his life the summer before his first birthday, due to a psycho-roommate who over fed him & lied about the food "spilling" into his bowl. What was she doing feeding him anyway?!? And the food can was far too short in comparison to the bowl to "fall in." So yes, we had an obese fish for a bit, but we put him on a diet and all was well again.

We celebrated his first birthday, the miracle birthday, on November 10, 2012. We went all out. Katilyn baked and decorated a big cake for him in the shape of a goldfish, with little goldfish surrounding. There was Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream and Goldfish crackers as dessert & appetizers. We played Gold Fish & Pin-the-Fin-On-the-Goldfish. 

It was a birthday fit for a king. We really spoiled the little guy. And he probably didn't know the difference from the day-to-day.

Rick survived weeks alone while we went on vacation. He was there for the long nights studying at the kitchen table. He helped us celebrate Halloween & Christmas. 

Our little man would amuse us with his bubble making sounds & the little flips he did when he got new, clean water. Rick was always excited, always swimming around like mad. 

It may be a little strange to become so emotionally attached to a goldfish, but he was family. And I'll miss him lots. He passed away today, just after turning 21 months old.

Rest in peace, my fishy friend.