Boy, I had the best summer vacation a fish could have! Let me tell you all about it... come a little closer, but please don't fall in the water. You'll drown if you don't have gills like I do!

My owner was really worried about me. I was only about an inch and a half long when she brought me out of a nice pet shop and raised me in a 10-gallon fish tank, which was just fine for a little while. But I got big in a hurry! I had grown to be about nine inches long!

Well, you know, when you eat well, you tend to grow and grow some more. Now, mind you, I didn't have an ounce of fat on my body! I became a lean, mean, eatin' machine and I love life to the fullest. I think it's cute how my owners smile and feed me more when I swim to the front of the tank and wriggle a lot!

I almost lost my life one day, when something spooked me and I made a real quick move I hadn't done before and wham! Before I knew it, I was on the rug! I don't know how people can live in that awful air stuff! I was just gasping away, and fading fast, when all of a sudden there was a big brown shoe near my face and this giant, who turned out to be my owner, quickly rescued me and replaced me in my tank. A day later, I felt more like my old finny self and learned not to be so quick to jump... except on the day I was unknowingly scheduled to go on my summer vacation.

They actually snuck up on me! I eyed this large ice chest full of water that had been de-chlorinated so I wouldn't have to get any of that awful chlorine in my system. All of a sudden, a big green net was in my face and had grabbed my body! I tried to get away and I splashed much of the water out of that aquarium, but this net-thing had scooped me out of my home.

I didn't know WHAT was going on and I was scared. They put me in this thing they called an "ice-chest" and closed the lid and it got completely dark. I couldn't even take a nap, as the ride was too bumpy because they were rolling me across the lawn on a hand cart.

Then the lid flew open and whoosh!... the green net-thing got me again! They lowered me gently from the net into a pond. Oh, it was the loveliest sight for sore eyes! I had been cramped up in that small tank, so it was just wonderful to be able to swim for a long time in any direction... mostly 'round and `round, since my pond was a large kid's pool that had been lovingly made into my new summer residence.

My owners had decorated my new digs with plants: Anacharis; a wonderful water lily that was blooming; some water poppies; and a lovely spider lily in a big pot. There were parrot feathers, a strange plant that rises out of the water and looks like a green bottle brush. I didn't see any parrots around, though. And there were some big rocks, which stuck out of the water, inviting frogs to come sit on them where they could visit with me.

The people wanted me to have the best food available so I could be more healthy and thrive. I was still not a "fat fish" so I was really looking forward to that. Well, they stocked my pond with these little gray minnows that looked something like guppies.... and told me these were my meals that I would need to hunt down and eat! Urk!

I looked at this pile of fast, cute little fish and said "Well, okay." But as I swam off, the minnows would dash around me, playing and inviting me to play "hide and go seek". It was so much fun, I decided that I wouldn't actually eat them unless my owner forgot to feed me for days and I needed to eat. That worked out fine and we just played the whole summer long!

My owners could tell I liked the minnows, but not as food, so they brought me shrimp and sometimes cut up mullet or other small pieces of fish. Sometimes these ugly green worms would get on the parrot feather plants and munch on them, making me and my owner unhappy about that destruction.

So I helped my owner by eating some of the worms that they knocked off the plant and into the water. They were downright tasty, but nothing compares to the taste and feel of a grasshopper! I love those things! They would take a flying leap, thinking they were going to land on a plant and whop! Right in the water in front of my huge mouth! My owner noticed this and began to round up some grasshoppers for me sometimes. Don't I have a great owner? I'm so glad she's not squeamish!

Well, the weather changes, and it began to get colder in Northern Florida in October, so my owners decided to move me back into the house for the winter. But I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me! They bought me a much bigger home, more than five times bigger than the tank I grew up in. I like it a lot and I still get fed well every day. I get worms and crickets and freeze-dried foods for tropical fish... but now it's May and I'm counting the days til I can go back out in my favorite summer vacation haven.