Russel

Fare well my dear friend. Your story was an odyssey, but it will not be forgotten:

One day, two year ago, whilst I was still half asleep, my friend Alexander came over to my place to bring me a gift. "Open the door, I am bringing you a gladiator fish", he announced by the inter-phone. We have this tradition of buying each other useless, yet amazing, gifts. Thus I imagined he had bought me a teddy bear fish dressed as a gladiator. Useless, to the point of being awesome. Still I had misunderstood. A small red gladiator fish stared at me from inside a plastic bag. We put it in the mini fish tank he had bought me along, and starred at it.

I named him Russel (as a homage to the actor in Gladiator).

Russel and I had amazing adventures. Like the times I changed his watter and had to catch him, then release him in another water recipient until I had cleaned the fish tank...

He used to puff and become angry whenever anything red and fluffy came to his attention, or whenever I put him face to face with his own reflection on a mirror. Ah! those were the times...

Then, the tragic thing happened: I had to leave Athens for Paris. Thankfully a surrogate mother and grandmother were found, his fish tank expanded, and for a year and a half he lived a peaceful life.

At some point a companion was introduced: Orion, a fish that cleans the fish tank. Orion was shy and died of being-eaten-by-another-fish-itis, a quite comon fish disease.

And recently, I learned that Russel, too has gone to sleep with its kind.

Farewell Russel. It was nice knowing you.