A FARM PASSAGE...
I am sorry to report tonight that Luther, the blue farm beta fish, has passed on to the great fish bowl in the sky. Luther has been a part of the farm for 5 or 6 years, a long life for a beta fish. I think the thought of another winter of chilly water was too much for him to bear, and when he sensed it coming these last couple of days, he just decided to check out.
Luther is the 4th in a long line of farm betas. Bob, beta #1, overcame a near death experience as Hendrix knocked his bowl on the floor where he flopped around until Eliza walked in the room and rescued him. He lived to be the subject of Eliza's 4th grade proficiency test essay, "Bob's Near Death Experience." Bob was followed by Hank, whom Eliza accidently dropped down the drain when she was cleaning his bowl. She did manage to grasp his tail as he was swirling away, but alas, it came off in her hand, and Hank got sucked down the bathroom sink pipe. (I assured her that the drain ran directly into the pond and that Hank would be just fine. That thought soothed her heart until she realized the pond freezes over in winter and Hank was a tropical fish.) Then there was Dean who met an untimely death when Loonis knocked over his temporary tank and made him her dinner. Shortly thereafter, Luther came to live with us.
Luther loved to flirt with me when I stood in front of his bowl to feed him. (Great example of behavior modification...) And, I will credit Luther with being a rather smart fish-- he learned at an early age to swim to the bottom of the tank and lie really still when a cat perched beside it to watch him.
Tomorrow, I'll bury Luther in my flower garden so that as he returns to the earth, he can fertilize the small space of ground where he lies. And then, I'll probably go buy another beta fish.
May you rest in peace, Luther....I'll miss my daily "Good morning, Luther!" before I dropped in your BetaBites.
You were a good fish!
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