Archangel And The Miracle Of The Fish

There's a guy I refer to as Archangel. He's a creative type, loves the outdoors, loves being busy, doing things, working on projects, and such. One of his projects a few years back was a pretty big koi pond. Koi tend to get 'jumpy' in the spring around mating season. Jumpy doesn't mean nervous here, it means they like to jump. They jump up out of the water and splash back down. Some kind of mating ritual that's supposed to turn on the other sex. Every once in a while, one of them will jump too high, too close to the edge of the pond, and land on the patio. That's always unfortunate if they're not found and put back almost immediately.

Recently one of the koi did an out of the pond jump and Archangel found it just as it was weakly gasping it's last gasp. This fish had obviously been there for more than few moments; it already had flies landing all over it. Archangel scooped it up and put it back in the water where it instantly went belly up. Not being one to give up, Archangel proceeded to turn it upright, then stayed with that fish for about two hours. He held it under it's belly and helped it swim back and forth. He massaged it's little chest to help what might be some sort of lung function. He held it by it's tail and pulled and pushed it through the water, forcing water through it's gills. He kept righting it as it would keel to one side, and after about an hour, the fish started swimming on it's own. Weakly, but swimming around. Archangel stayed there, still monitoring, still giving occasional belly rubs, and slowly the fish started swimming better and better. It started swimming down a bit deeper in to the middle of the pond and across the other side. Archangel slapped the water a few times and this fish came back over to him for more belly rubs. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe, but true. Finally it nestled down beside the filter where the water would be constantly flowing around it; it seemed tired, but it seemed to be doing OK. Archangel, exhausted from leaning over this pond nursing a fish for two hours, went into the house and fell asleep for the night.

First thing in the morning Archangel went to check on this fish. It was swimming with the other fish, acting normal, and eating. It was fine, still is fine, and has no ill effects from it's closer than close brush with certain death. Unbelievable. Really, it's a miracle it survived. Thanks to Archangel.



Peace, love and light,
LaSal