One of my heroes died in late June, the ground-breaking American comedian George Carlin. I’m still not quite over it and probably won’t be, especially now that one of my goldfish died. I have no idea why Ghost Fish died, but the other four are doing well. Ghost Fish was only about a year old, while George Carlin was 71 and quite clearly died of a heart problem. Still, their deaths were an equal shock.

Since Ghost Fish died soon after George, I tell people that I’m still upset over George’s death rather than tell them about my fish. I have a feeling George wouldn’t mind.

Pets Are Irreplaceable

The reason I tell people who ask why I’m down in the dumps that it’s because of George’s death and not my fish’s death is because you do not get any sympathy about a dead goldfish. I found this out way back in the fourth grade. I had a guinea pig die and was still depressed a few moths later. My fourth grade teacher chewed me out over it, saying I had more than enough time to be over the death of a mere guinea pig.

Many years later, I had another guinea pig, Foot-Foot, die one month before Princess Diana did. My guinea pig was nearly six years old and died of incurable cirrhosis, but she was in good spirits and didn’t suffer. Even though I knew she had lived a full life and was out of misery, I was crushed. I’m still not over it, to tell you the truth. But mention your feelings to another person and you get very strange looks. Later on, I could say I was upset about Princess Diana’s death and would get sympathy like you wouldn’t believe.

The Moral of the Story

The moral is that sometimes, when you need a bit of sympathy to relieve stress from a pet death from someone who doesn’t know you very well, blame it on a person’s death — even a person who you never met. The important thing is to get a bit of immediate stress relief in order to get through the day. Eventually, the grief does fade.

Hope this helps.

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