Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Fish Who Walked Upstairs

If you thought the cat barf was disgusting, this was like a million, bajillion times worse. See the lovely little sucker fish over there? Sure, he's nice and plain in the fish tank, surrounded by pretty fish and colorful rocks and flowing fronds of plastic weeds. But what do you think he looked like lying in the middle of my hallway directly outside my bathroom door?

I'll tell you what he looked like. Like a nasty, disgusting, grey, weird, dead fish. How I avoided stepping on this creature at 7 in the morning without my contacts in is beyond me. But on emerging from the bathroom, I took one step and stepped no further. Hubby and I just stood there. Staring.

"What is it?" says Hubby.
"I have no idea," I reply. "It looks kind of like one of those sucker fish," I say.
"That's disgusting," he says.
We continue staring.
"How did it get up here?" he asks.
(The fish tanks are two floors below us in the basement.)
"I don't think it walked up here," I reply. "Do you think a cat brought it up?"
"How would they get it out?" he asks. (Our cats are declawed...fishing isn't their best sport. Besides the fact that most of the fish tanks have lids. Plus, the door to the room which contains said fish tanks is usually closed.)
"Maybe it died and they just pawed it out or something."
This whole time we have been just standing in the hall staring at the thing. One of the cats walks by and bats it a bit.
"Eeew. Gross. I'm not touching that," I say.
We don't touch it. Hubby toes it out of our direct path and we continue getting ready while trying not to look at it.

That afternoon, when brother comes down (he doesn't usually get out of bed until around 2 pm on the weekends) we say, "Uh, hey, there's something up in the hall you need to see."
He walks up, stares at the fish and asks how on earth it got up there. The door to his basement room had been open. But the tank where the fish came from had a lid on it. And this is not a swimmy-type of fish. He basically just sits there and sucks the side of the tank. Well, he doesn't anymore. Anyway, brother picks up the fish and goes down to look in the tanks to see what may have happened. He couldn't figure it out either.

It's a mystery. The things that bump around our house in the middle of the night...and the gifts our cats bring us. Blech.

9 comments:

Jean said...

that's really gross. i can't believe you left it there. and that the cats didn't eat it. yuck.

anne said...

I was also quite surprised it didn't get eaten. It didn't even really look chewed on. (I know...eew) Not that we even really looked all that closely at it.
It wasn't really my mess to clean up, right?
Besides, it was freaking 7:30 Sunday morning and that was the last thing I wanted to think about!

heather said...

um, gross!

say - you're the blogging queen today! slow at work? do you leave tomorrow?? have a GREAT time!!!!

anne said...

Yeah, it has been slow today. And my muse just kept striking.

I am leaving tomorrow!

Hey, I saw your hubby yesterday...I won't be there on Sunday, don't forget--but Dan & Matt Bell will be. Hee hee...what I wouldn't give to see that! Have fun!

Carbon said...

That is gross. What a way to start a day. Yuck.

anne said...

You are not kidding. Cats these days...

Kassi Gilbert said...

I would seriouly be freaking out...seeing that the fish died before it could extact its carefully laid out plan of suckering itself up a flights of stairs to carry out some terrible deed...or perhaps getting to the toilet to flush itself into freedom.

I am not a big fan of fish, so this is the stuff of nightmares for me. I would have reacted the same way...by not picking it up...perhaps deciding it was a figment of my imagination.

Also, if this had been a story about a frog i would have had to move out of my home.

anne said...

HAAA..his carefully laid plans...

Funny thing is, when I was telling people last month about the frog in my tub, they all thought it was a real one instead of a porcelain one!

My husband won't touch frogs. When I find them in the garden and take them to him, it grosses him right out. He's such a wussy boy. : )

Jen said...

That is disgusting. I can't believe the cats didn't eat it either. You would be surprised how great cats are at fishing even without their claws. We watched our kitten when I was younger successfully fish out our betta with socks on her feet. Amazing.