Goldfish

Many people probably didn't know that Kayleigh had pet goldfish. We haven't had much  luck with them over the years, with most of the dying from sickness, but mainly cats . . . . .

Our first fish were called Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner which we had in a small pond next to our back door. These didn't last long as our german shepherd Sash decided to go fishing one day and Kayleigh found them lying on the porch. We moved the pond and put some rocks in it for the fish to hide - the next lot of fish Kayleigh called battered, crumbed and fried. These actually did last a number of months. I think crumbed died when he got caught between the rocks and couldn't escape. I believe heavy frost one night killed the others when the pond froze - it really wasn't deep enough.

We didn't have fish then for a while until Terene built an in-ground pond in the backyard that was deep enough to have fish . . . . then came all sorts of golfish - most were killed by either spiders or cats. Kayleigh had a deep disliking for cats because of it. Eventually we had to remove the pond - water restrictions are a pain in the ****.

For Kayleighs 12th birthday we got her a proper fish tank and two fish - goldie and something I can't remember. They didn't last long as one of them had cottonmouth - a nasty fish disease that eventully suffocates the fish and its very contagious to other fish. So we replaced them with two fish called Bubbles (a classic gold coloured goldfish) and Boggles ( a boggle-eyed black goldfish). She was given a gold and white goldfish which she called Zippy after her first day at high school. Bubbles and Zippy are still with us, unfortunately Boggles died of unknown reasons. They were joined in the tank by two fish we bought for Lucas (Kayleighs youngest brother) called Copper fleck and Rexy.

I remember every time one of the fish dies, Kayleigh would cry and then bury them in the frount yard nect to one of the conifiers. She loved her fish and would clean their tank out each month. I have only done it once since Kayleigh passed away.