About a year and a half ago Sam and I were walking down the sidewalk and found a fish. True story. It’s how Jen came into our lives. You can read about it here.

Jen was a Betta Fish. They don’t have exceptionally long life spans, 2-5 years depending on quality of life, tank size and other factors. We thought we had set up Jen pretty good. Her tank was bigger than most betta fish tanks, she had a low flow filter, some moss balls, and was fed both betta fish pellets and bloodworms. Pretty sweet life for a fish that was abandoned on a sidewalk on a hot day.

She had the attention of our youngest cat, Clue (or Little Bit.. .which is his nickname that is somehow way longer than his actual name). Clue (seen below) loved staring at the tank, laying around the tank and just sitting near it. Clue also has an infatuation with running water. Pour a glass of water, run a faucet, fill a pitcher or refill the tank, Clue is there playing with the running water. His interest seemed way more in the water, than ever in Jen, and Jen, while liking attention, always swam away from fast moving objects like paws.

Jen’s tank does have one flaw though. A small opening at the top to feed Jen. While Clue has put his paw in to play with the water before, he has never removed the lid or done it to play with Jen… That we know of.

Yesterday Sam and I were both downstairs watching tv and contemplating dinner. Shadows (our other, much lazier cat) was down there with us. We heard a crash from upstairs. Knowing how stupid both of our cats are, we just figured Clue was knocking things off the bookcase, coffee table, kitchen counter, sink counter, or any number of other places that he seems to think are super interesting worth knocking stuff off of. We didn’t move figuring whatever it was could wait. 20 minutes later, plans finalized, we came upstairs to find nothing wrong or askew.

Sam went to feed Jen her dinner, only to find out she’s not in her tank. However the lid is on, there are no puddles anywhere, the towel the tank sits on is completely dry, and no cat is acting odd or strange. Nothing is amiss, out of place, wet, or even remotely suspicious. Just no Jen.

We searched the house for a fish corpse, thinking there is no way our cat could eat Jen in her entirety. Shadows maybe, but he was downstairs with us the whole time. Clue, he likes to play with is food, drags toys and other things that move all over the house and just leave them places. But there was no water anywhere on the floor in any of the rooms of the house, and no fish remains to be found.

Also Clue himself was completely dry. Both front paws showed no sign of being wet. We checked the tank over for Jen remains, took apart the filter just to be sure, stirred up the rocks in the bottom, removed all decorations… no Jen.

Jen was there in the morning. I know, I fed her. And she was there around noon when I finished up my work and went downstairs to relax.

We came up with a few theories of what may have happened.

A) Clue was playing with the tank, was able to put a paw in the hole for feeding, lift the lid – without completely removing it – picked up an ate Jen in one swipe, replaced the lid, got a paper towel and wiped dry his fur, and threw away the paper towel to hide the evidence. In this scenario the crash we heard was the lid of the tank being replaced.

B) Jen is like a modern day Fish Houdini. She decided to escape to freedom, even though it was way below freezing outside, and ran off. The crash we heard would have been Jen jumping out of the tank or possible her slamming the door on her way out. Futurama, my favorite show of all time, may have had it right with the Reverse Scuba Suit.

Lastly,
C) There was a small Fish Rapture. While Sam and I are not religious in any sort of way, it doesn’t mean our pets aren’t. This is my prevailing theory. In this theory the crash we heard is Jen being raptured and water immediately rushing in to fill the vacuum left from her being taken in whole.

There is this artist, Dana Ellyn, who does an amazing painting of the Fish Rapture. It’s fantastic. If I had money to spare, I’d buy it to hang over where the fish tank is to remind me of what happened to Jen.

I’m going to put it below Check out here paintings at DanaEllyn.com. She’s a pretty awesome artist.

Anyways, we like to think we gave Jen a good home. The best that a Betta Fish abandoned on a sidewalk on a hot summer day could hope for. We like to think she had a personality and responding to our presence. Or at least recognized that when we came close, she was getting fed. We’re going to miss you Jen!

While I’m going with the Fish Rapture, what scenario do you think is most likely?