I was in Saskatoon a while ago and at the place where I stayed, they have a fish tank with four fish. One very large gold fish or koi, a white gold-fish, another smaller goldfish with bug-eyes that look upwards and some bottom-feeding fish that makes very rare appearances. The fish with the bug-eyes is affectionately called Seymour... See-more... because of his big eyes. He's pretty cute but does get bullied by the big gold fish. The last time I was there, I noticed that Seymour's left eye is huge, and deformed. I couldn't even see the pupil anymore... and it looked like he might have cancer or really big, bad cateracts. His other eye doesn't look all that great either.
Now I'm not a big "fish" person. I don't understand people who keep fish as "pets". To me a pet is somebody that you can pet (duh) and interact with and play with. Somebody that you can touch without getting your hand wet. To me, a pet is a mammal! But, little Seymour broke my heart. It's pretty clear that he doesn't see very well at all, and I wondered how he's doing in the foraging department. He's just a fish, and yet he's a living creature. Part of me wanted to take Seymour to the vet... but I'm not sure what they would be able to do... other than putting Seymour out of his misery.
Which just goes to show me that even though Seymour is not what I consider a "pet", my compassion can still extend beyond mammal fur to something that I hadn't expected.
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