Oh, To Be Loved by You
I never knew what it was like to be loved by a fish. I underestimated what it was like to rescue an animal and have them know it. Up until this point, the only pets I truly connected with had hair, and Buoy was a fabulous indigo-cobalt with magenta accents at the fins. Betta fish, bred deep within the pet trade with undeniable animal abuse, sported long and flowy fins, especially the males. Buoy had elegant fans as fins, and the downside to that was how difficult swimming could be. In the wild, beta fish have significantly smaller fins-- for obvious reasons. How uncomfortable would it be if humans had unreasonably large feet, all for nothing but cosmetics? Walking and keeping balance would take on new turf, as it has for these beautiful creatures. This was a problem, the gravity of which, sunk much later and deeper.