He's in a better place....

I hate that phrase. In this case it's true. Happily he's not dead, just in a better place. I'm talking about my fishy. We figured a 1200+ mile drive in a bucket wasn't a good idea so we found a responsible aquarium store that takes oversized plecos and finds them homes. It apparently is a common occurance. They tend to grow to 24 inches if you let them. My fishy was only 14 inches. I raised him since he was only 2 1/2 inches long. He survived two wildfire evacuations, jumping out of his tank, scraping his nose down to the cartlidge, bubble disease, algae bloom, and a faulty heater that kept inching his water above 85 degrees. He has new friends, a bigger tank and proper Ph as well as lots of people to look at him. As I finish up the last parts of packing up my office I find myself sitting and staring at the empty tank missing the little guy. He cheered me up at work and we have been through a lot together. While some would say he was only a fish, one of those boring algae eaters they didn't know him. He had a personality and perserverance and really cool leopard spots. He would come over and watch TV with me and attach his big sucker to the glass where I was like he wanted his belly scratched. < He used to play with Snail, our extra large yellow snail we purchased originally to keep Oppenheimer my Celestial Eye gold fish company. Oppenheimer and Snail used to play a game of something akin to tag. The fish would nudge the snail and knock him off of the side of the tank and then the snail would in turn launch himself from the side of the tank and bump the fish. After Oppenheimer passed on we put Snail in the tank with Plookey and they continued the game. He had feelings... I remember when Snail passed on he actually was depressed and stayed at Snail's side for a while. He was a good fish... he is still a good fish, in a bigger tank with more friends to play with. I am happy for him but I have a hole in my heart and right now.