The fish that spoke to me...

I have to digress away from my normal blog style to share this story -- this is my opinion and not trying to force my ideas on anyone--

Recently I read a blog and in it was this statement that animals don't have souls--I say Says WHO???  Just using the word soul brings up religious belief and why should it?  Personally to me whatever one believes is their religion--it doesn't have to be indoctrinated--I have a belief system made up of bits of knowledge drawn from various sources--some of it are conclusions drawn completely of my own accord.
In order to find the answer of is there a soul you have to first of all figure out what a soul is, then separate indoctrinated religious belief from science and etc...It cant be done--you cant dissect and find a soul--unfortunately!  IF you could dissect to find the souls of some I think it would be a black slimy murk-BUT

I did some research and found out the reason this belief of animals not having a sould exists due to certain religious doctrine-and religious teachings and is believed by some religious fanatics-surely there is no scientific evidence to the fact that animals Do or Don't have souls.  There is no evidence that Humans Do or Don't have souls..if there is show me the proof, and dont show it to me in the Bible, the Quran, the Torah-- regardless of whether there is a soul or not animals have feelings, emotions, they are living beings, and they deserve to be treated with kindness and respect.

I don't eat animals or use products that come from animals or that test on animals because to me its hypocrisy!  My love of all the creatures of the earth means I am with them, equal to them, in support of their existing along with me.  I guess that's kinda what Buddha was saying, but I am not a religious person-- Yes we are all of varying levels of awareness in order to live out the lifespan of the body we are in! Humans 80-90 years mice 3-4 yrs!  So that's my belief system and I and show my support of that by not harming or eating animals or FISH!.... MY burning question is do trees have a spirit?  I have a long way to go to become the person I wish to be!  In an online  personality test I was most like Ghandi and Karl Marx..so go figure-LOL

Having said all that I have a story to share, this is an absolute true story  from a personal experience and if it doesn't at the very least make one question their belief of the life force of animals then--well-- there may be no hope left.

We are all familiar with dogs n cats and some of us have interacted with other animals of the world.  When I was growing up it was dogs, cats, and HORSES!  I spent my childhood having adventures astride the backs of these great animals and while gazing into those huge brown eyes I saw a spirit/soul and my own was reflected back to me-

So as I moved through life I became more aware of how animals are exploited I worked in an industry that did that and when the realization hit me I got out of it asap. ( I worked with racehorses for about 5 years)
Animals are not meant to be bought and sold, raced, showed off, and forced into labor for profit...that's why at this point of my realization of the rights of animals, all I have are 2 rescued dogs!  The only reason I would pay money for an animal is-- to save its life-

So on with my story...before I reached this point in my life and while I was raising my son he also had this love of animals.  He loved horses but didn't ride them he preferred small animals. hamsters, rabbits, lizards, snakes, fish, birds etc. and you get the picture. So we had one of everything--and as is with most children he did some of the taking care but as often happens most of the work fell to Moi-We had a small 10 gallon fish tank and he stocked it with fish and due to our limited skills on keeping fish we were not always successful at recreating the right habitat and they would die off.  Finally when he decided to buy only goldfish it was easier (and cheaper).

The fish were all different colors and sizes.  Over the period of about 3 years the gold fish died off  except for one large calico one.  The tank had been moved into my bedroom and I got into the habit of feeding "Goldie" the minute I got out of bed in the morning.  (yeah I know not very original, and we had a young stallion named Browne...lol).  If I was laying on my side when my eyes opened I could see Goldie treading water in the side of the tank that faced my bed watching me...and waiting for me.  So I would sit on the side of the bed, yawn and stretch get up and walk straight to Goldie's tank and sprinkle his little "fish flakes" while he swam in happy circles then ate with vigor.  I went about my day and completely ignored him the rest of the day till he was fed again before the sun went down.  Such was the life of Goldie-

I had already told my son NO MORE purchasing of ANIMALs by this time I had began to develop the opinion that buying animals was not right and I didn't want to support the industries any longer and my son agreed...his rabbit "snowy" had passed away and along with the hamsters Louy and Duey was buried in the back yard.  Ever so often I had to clean the tank and Goldie waited in a glass mixing  bowl while I cleaned his tank, but other than that feeding him was his only interaction with humans since my son had long ago lost interest in Goldie-and Goldie lived alone in the tank.--I should have given him to someone else who had a tank full of fish... thinking back on it now.

So while I slept Goldie watched me...I had no idea how to communicate with a fish--but I did speak to him when I entered the room and said good morning and goodnight and that was it.  So one Saturday morning when there was no work or school I slept in a bit and I was awakened by this little sound...."tink" I looked around to see what it was and saw nothing!  I got up fed Goldie and went about my day.  Next weekend the same thing "tink, tink, tink", looked around nothing!

Then one Sunday morning I opened my eyes head still on my pillow not stirring yet, and I saw Goldie in the tank looking right at me, then he reached down to the bottom of the tank sucked up one of those small blue pebbles that lined the bottom  and then he spit it against the glass of the tank- "tink" and then he did it again..."tink". 

Realization came over me with a flush...GOLDIE had not only, all on his own, figured out a way to wake me but to communicate with me! There he was in his tank watching me and he was thinking and planning, and he was successful at getting my attention!  He came to these conclusions of his own accord problem solving, and he had put a lot of thought into it---

1. I was a living creature who nourished him & would not harm him- he trusted me
2. That when I was laying in my bed I was sleeping and could be awakened
3. That I was a creature of routine
4. He knew it was past his normal feeding time
5. That if he could figure out a way to wake me up he would get his breakfast
6. I responded to sound
7. He wanted to communicate with me
8. Tossing a pebble onto the glass made a sound
9. He could use that as a way to communicate with me NOW I don't know about you, but that went way beyond what I had been able to do in the reverse...I was not able to tell him anything!  I never figured out a way to talk to him other than to feed him.  He figured out how to communicate with me!! Dont try tell me that creature was not a sentient being!!!  When Goldie passed away he had a proper burial in the back yard that any creature of this Earth should get, I said a few words to show his passing meant something to ME he gave his entire life-his spirit-his soul- to me there in my bedroom in the small tank and he had an impact on my life--I will never forget him!
I believe animals have souls and they can speak, how do you know they dont, just because they've never spoken to you? I hope you enjoy this wonderful song-