goodbye fishy ...

after more than a year, i bade goodbye to my dear pet ... a red fighting fish ...

it was my 16th birthday present ...

ever since it had joined me in my journey of life, i had always left it alone, even though i knew that they always liked to interact with people ... dumping food into its tank was my daily activity , ocassionally forgetting to do so ..cleaning the tank was a chore that i clean it once in a month ....

needless to say , i seldom spent time watching its progress, growth and health ...

and one day , i noticed that it stopped eating its food ... it does bite the food , but it spat it all out ... i wonder what disease have it contracted and my attention was drawn to it now ... but it all proved to be too late....

day after day ... it became skinnier, weaker , and its colours seem to be fading ...

up till yesterday , it became a 'vertical fish' ... its body was held vertically all the day , i guess gasping for air ... then , i lowered the water level , until it could comfortably breath ...

i knew that his time was up ... and i even planned his burial ...

today, when i left home, his condition never turned for the better ... still a 'vertical fish' ... while comming home , i was prepared for the worst ... i even looked for a burial spot while i was downstairs ....

and when i came up, guess what... he passed away ....

as i have expected ... so , i told my brother about my plans ... and together, we brought it downstairs to bury it ...

hope it could find his safe haven under the plant , and could rest in peace ...

from now on , i will take good care of my other fighting fish , and make sure that it will live on happily and get over his companion's departure (he seem to be gloomy at this moment) ...

cherish what you have now, because you'll never know when you will last see it ....