Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. (Ovid)

Lucky has once again earned his name.

I can't remember if I've talked about Lucky before. Probably, since his adventures are the type of thing I would talk about. Just as a brief history: Lucky is my school's pet Beta fish. One of our students brought a fish for us, and somehow I became responsible for keeping it alive. I almost flushed it down the toilet when I found it floating at the top of the bowl. Luckily, I was in a hurry and decided to take care of the corpse "later." When I came back to the fish, he was swimming around as if nothing had happened. A few days later, the fish played dead for our program supervisor. Luckily, she decided to let me handle disposing of the body. When I got to the fish, again he was fine. It was then that the fish was officially named Lucky. Lucky has "played dead" a third time, as well.

Last week, I had to change fishbowls due to a severe algae problem in his "condo" tank. Lucky's been staying in a regular fishbowl, which we like to refer to as his FEMA trailer, until I can get to the pet store to pick up a new filter for his "condo." (Can you tell we live in South Florida?) Well, yesterday I noticed that Lucky had a mild case of Ich. I decided to take him home, since my son is very good at doctoring fish. (He's had lots of experience, unfortunately for his tank.)

On the way home, as I was turning a corner, the fishbowl fell and all of the water rushed out. I swerved up onto the grass (scaring nearby cars and an innocent pedestrian), jammed the gears into park, and scooped up as much of the water as I could before it soaked into the van's rug. Surprisingly, I managed to get about two inches of water back into the bowl. Then I frantically searched the floor for Lucky. I found him under the passenger seat. I grabbed him by his tail (not easy to do, since my arthritis is acting up and he's very slippery) and threw him into the fishbowl. I thought for sure that it was the end for Lucky, between the shock and the dirty water. Once home, I had to process the tap water before I could put Lucky into it. It was quite a while before he had a clean, roomy bowl to swim in.

But somehow he's survived. My son and I went to the pet store and found the proper medication for the ich. (They didn't have the filter I needed, by the way, so I still have another trip to the pet store before Lucky can move out of the FEMA trailer.) I'm going to keep Lucky at my house until he's better, so I guess that I'll have to make an announcement that he's been evacuated temporarily.