Thursday, March 22, 2007

Goodbye Little Loach

The time has come for us to say goodbye to our Pakistani Loach (botia lohachata). Not to worry... he is still alive and healthy, but for over a year, he has been the only fish in our fishtank. Now that we are moving, Mom has decided not to go through the whole trouble of tearing down the fishtank and setting it back up just for one fish. When she had more time, she used to love keeping a nice fishtank... live plants, lots of fish, she even had a chemistry kit to test the water and everything. But now she just has too much else going on. Mom has found a really good home for him with a friend, and she is glad she knows he will be taken care of.


Mr. Loach was my first friend when I was a kitten. He also provided hours of entertainment. When I was small (like in the first photo here) Mom and Dad put a chair near the fishtank so I could look in more easily. Eventually I was able to get on top of the fishtank and make sure he was safe. Plus it was another neat way to look at him. Sometimes we would even nap together. Mr. Loach liked naps... and in fact would sleep on his side on the bottom of the tank. People who didn't know about him would often think he was sick or even dead! Only one time did I try to get in and visit him. But I slipped and got very wet and decided it was better to have a friendship between the glass.


Somewhere Mom has a picture of Mr. Loach from when the fishtank was pretty and fancy, but of course she can't find it now. This is a picture of another Pakistani Loach on the web. He's not too big (only about three inches long), and has neat whisker things in the front of his face. Our loach is somewhere between 6 and 7 years old. In the wild, he most likely wouldn't live this long, but in captivity he may live up to 11 years!! Let's hope he does.

I will now close with a few more pictures of Mr. Loach and I having some fun together. These are not recent pictures... they are from before I was full-grown. I was about 7 or 8 months old in the pictures below (much younger in the pictures above!). Aside from my size, you can tell these are older pictures because the fish food was on top of the fishtank. This was before I found out how yummy fish food is and then it had to be stored in the refrigerator. You can click any pictures to make them larger!



15 comments:

Daisy said...

G'bye Mr. Loach! I hope you have a nice life in your new home. My Mommie used to have an aquarium too, and she had a clown loach. It looks like you have some good memories of the loach. But aquariums are lots of hard work (we don't have one anymore).

Artsy Catsy said...

This is our second try with this comment, Mattingly! Grrr to Blogger! We used to have a fish tank and you're right -- fish food is the BEST, especially if you spread it out all over the floor to eat it!

Rocky

Meowers from Missouri said...

bye-bye, mr loach. thank you for being mattingly's friend for so long. you two are a shining example of cross-species friendship!! we hopes you has a long and healthy life in your new home, and that there are ofurr critters there to be YOUR friends!

The M's said...

We clicked the bottom picture and biggified it, you can see Mr. Loach in the bottom right hand corner. We are sad to hear that Mr. Loach will not be moving with you. We do hope that the new owners will love him as much as you have.

Smeagol and Strider, Mystery (Sunnin' at the Bridge) and Gizmo too! said...

Bye bye Mr. Loach, we're sad that you don't get to move with Mattingly & Harlie, but we hopes you likes your new home!

Toffee K. Ripple Fuzzypants & Feline American Angels said...

We have loaches, too! Mom bought us a pair of clown loaches and a kuli loach, too ... We've had them for a furry long time and we LOVE to watch them ... Too bad you don't get to keep yours.
DMM

Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...

Good bye Mr. Loach. We're glad yoo had such a good frend fur so long Mattingly. Hope he lives a long, good life in his new home.

Max said...

Hey, at least she found him a good home. That's not always possible when you're moving and you have fishies...

The Crew said...

Oh Mattingly, you were so cute when you were little. Of course, you were destined to be a handsome guy. Too bad you won't have your fishie to look at, but maybe your new home will have some good trees outside where you can see birdies.

Love,
Tipper

Karen Jo said...

Goodbye, Mr. Loach. I hope you really like your new home. I second the hope that your new home will have trees with birdies, Mattingly.

mister jeter harris, hizself said...

deer mattingly,
u can definitlee join da creechurz groop on da catster. merlin da cat wizard would like it!
do u need a cap?
p-mail me at catster.
luv--jh

The Fluffy Tribe said...

It's hard to lose a friend, but he is going to a good home and maybe you guys can write? ~Merlin, Shadow, Ko KO

Ivan from WMD said...

Mattingly, what a cute photo of you napping on the tank! Maybe Mr. Loach could get his own blog once he settles in at his new home!

jenianddean said...

Sorry Mr. Loach is leaving you but I'm glad he has a new good home. And it's good you have Harlie to play with...
--Jasper

Anonymous said...

Isn't that nap the cutest picture on the planet? awwww dear Mattingly!

Btw, I am happy to hear Mr. Loach has a good home. :)