More Magic?

Early in this blog, I referenced an epiphany that I had about five years ago when two eagles flew directly over my head and I was suddenly convinced that I was blessed. I had been struggling to rebuild my life after returning to my beloved, native Minnesota—after experiencing heartache in “Providence,” Rhode Island. When I began this blog, I mentioned in my profile that I was looking for “the magic in life.”

Please allow me to continue… Now, five years later with a job, home and a beautiful, wonderful wife, we are now expecting our first child. Did I mention that? It is part of the personal life I don’t talk about much, when I fool around writing about the adventures of ”Cutris” that probably entertains me more than it does you. Still, if you are reading, perhaps I’ve caught your attention.

As my wife and I have been deciding how to best arrange things to accommodate the new arrival, we came to the conclusion that we have too many fish tanks. Since our ultimate goal is to sell two small homes and buy one that we can better fit into, we put a moratorium on buying new fish some time ago. During this time, I placed five crappie minnows (fishing bait) into our small tank, and until yesterday they and a single guppy inhabited this tank.

Our large tank currently houses a large orange Midas Cichlid that I bought for my wife a few years ago before we were married. It was supposed to live with the two Jack Dempsey’s who seemed to be too few for the 120-gallon tank. Unfortunately, the Dempsey’s attacked the Midas as cichlids do, and an infection in the tank nearly killed them all. My wife added some medicine to the water and the trio survived. They lived together for a long time, though when we went on vacation they apparently fought more as the “vacation feeders” must not have been enough for them. The Midas grew larger and over time, killed off the other two—leaving us recently, with one big Midas in a very big tank.

My solution to this dilemma was that I would put the bait fish in the small “pond” thing we have in the yard. They might die, which I felt bad about, but let’s face it, they could have ended up impaled on a fishhook waiting to be attacked by a predatory fish. Before winter if they survived, I would need to find a place to put them—but I would worry about that later. When “Bob” goes back to school (note* “Bob” is the Beta fish that my (teacher) wife keeps in her classroom), the guppy could live in the huge two-gallon bowl Bob has spent his summer “vacation” in. This would leave the small tank that I would clean and transfer the Midas into.

Today is the day I decided to start the process, and this morning when I fed them, two of the crappie minnows had died overnight. Yesterday they were healthy. Perhaps they reached the end of their natural lives? We’ve had them for over a year now. At any rate, I could only chuckle at the “magic” of these fish leaving the planet (and the fish tank) just before they were transferred out by circumstance.