Mister Fish's brush with death

Stella here.
Well if that don't beat all!
Pat G sent me this picture. She'd been readin' what we posted 'bout th' fish ladder up t' Damariscotta Mills an' she sent this photograph of her goldfish. Says it's goin' on 9 years old an' has grown from about an inch up t' its present size of over six inches. She calls it Mister Fish, although how she knows it's a mister's a mystery t' me.

Harvey says when it gets a little bigger it'll make a fine chowdah.
... Ain't he terrible!!

That fish has survived a couple o' moves t' new livin' quarters, an' also bein' outta water once f'r at least an hour, an' maybe longer!
Tough son-of-a-gun!!

Pat G says she come home one night after work (this was when th' fish was still only a year or so old), an' he/it wasn't in th' bowl she kep' it in.
She said at first she thought the fish'd been kidnapped by aliens, cuz where would a fish GO if 'twasn't in its bowl?
Guess she looked all over, an' fin'lly found a lump o' brown down on th' floor over by th' baseboard. When she poked it it wiggled.
Turned out t' be th' darn fish!

'Parently, it'd decided t' swim upstream ' n spawn or somethin' an' jumped clean outta its bowl.
Landed in a potted plant Pat G had settin' on th' floor.
Musta rolled around in th' pottin' soil an' got good'n covered in dirt...
an' then flopped out onta th' floor where she found it.

She says she didn't know what else t' do so she just scooped it up an' dumped it back in th' fishbowl.
An' when th' dirt washed off, that fish was pure white! Shock, I guess.

She says she expected it t' be floatin' in th' mornin', but there warn't nothin' she c'd think of t' do, so she just let it be.
And come mornin', there's th' fish - back t' its right color an' swimmin' around waitin' t' be fed!!

An' that was 7 or 8 years ago.

Pat G says she now knows a goldfish remedy f'r if y' got a goldfish that's doin' poorly.
Her daughter found out about it on th' internet by Googlin' "sick fish" or some such.
It seems what y' do is drop a pea (like y'd buy frozen at th' IGA) inta th' tank an' somethin' in that pea'll cure what ails th' fish.
Honest.
Ain't th' world an amazin' place!

Sky's tryin' t' clear off. Hope so.
Tomorra's s'pposed t' be nice. If I c'n get some parade pictures I'll send 'em to ya.
But we're off t' th' cemetery in a bit t' put flowers on th' graves o' Harvey's folks like we always do, so I gotta go.
Just thought y'd en-joy readin' about that fish.
Love,
Stella