Something is missing from our kitchen table.

I don't even know how to start this post. I was hoping this day would never come. It is with great sadness that I tell you this. Carthel the fish is no longer with us.

As previously reported, Carthel spent the summer with Jill and Ashley in Little Rock. He had a great time there and enjoyed being back with Jill again. Jill brought him back to Rachel and me a few weeks ago. Now a seasoned traveller, Carthel made the trip with ease. Of course we had missed him terribly and were so glad to have him back. He also seemed very happy to return to his home on our kitchen table.

Everything was going well until Thursday. We don't know what happened. I spent Wednesday night at Jill and Ashley's, as I had clinical in Little Rock on Thursday. When I left on Wednesday night, Carthel was doing just fine. Before I left, I fed him and watched him gobble up his little pellets of food. My friend Lea Ann and I told him goodbye and then left. I returned home from clinical on Thursday night to find our kitchen table missing its centerpiece...and a speechless Rachel standing nearby. She had seen Carthel that morning and he was just fine - swimming and happy. However, when she sat down for dinner that night, she noticed Carthel lying motionless at the bottom of his bowl.

We really have no idea what could have caused his sudden death, except perhaps old age. We're unsure of his birthdate, but Jill and I got him in February 2006, so he was probably closing in on two years old. He's certainly been acting normal and eating well (he and Rach even had peas for dinner recently - one of Carthel's favorites!). And he had clean, warm water. We take comfort in the fact that he did not suffer. He lived a good life and had so many friends who loved him.

We had a small funeral service for Carthel this afternoon, followed by burial outside our apartment. It was attended by Rachel, her sister Rebecca, our friends Lea Ann, Kari, and Tara, and of course me. Rachel wrote and performed a song for the occasion. We felt that he should remain in water, his natural home; so we buried him in a jar of fresh water. The service was short but meaningful.

Kari and Tara with Carthel's remains

preparing the body

I taped a picture from last Christmas on the outside of his jar.

Tara, Rebecca, and Lea Ann say their goodbyes.

smiling through my pain

Rachel singing her tribute. It was set to the tune of "Oh Artie Boy", the song Jessie sang at Slater's lizard's funeral on Saved by the Bell. It went:

Oh Carthel boy, the bowl, the bowl is empty.
No flakes or peas will make a difference now.
But you'll have fun at your big bowl in heaven,
At that bloodworm banquet table in the sky.