Smokey Jo Says "Hey"
"They" say that koi and goldfish have no intelligence. Obviously "they" never had a pond filled with colorful, healthy and happy koi and goldfish because if "they" did "they" would know that each fish has its own personality, responds to human touch and can even reason things out.
I guess I have to admit that my favorite pond fish are koi although goldfish are special too. I absolutely love my koi and treat them similarly to how I treat my furry pets. I worry when they are "under the weather" and play with them -- constantly touching and petting them -- just like I do with Duke and the cats. The Doc and I have over 50 koi in our 15,000 gallon pond. He has his special favorites and I have mine. Most of them have names and all of them have their own little personalities that endear us to them.
We used to house all our personal koi at our Alpharetta water garden center and many of our customers grew to love them too. Children (as well as adults) delighted in hand-feeding them and they, too, would point out their favorites. When we closed the Alpharetta location we built our koi a new pond here at the house that is three times as big as their former home. I was worried that the move would shock them and that I would never have back my loving fish family. My worry was for nothing. It took about a week for them to adjust and they've been loving it ever since. We did lose one during the move. Smiley, our large Shusui Butterfly, just didn't take the move well and the stress got to him. The Doc tried his best to save him but it wasn't meant to be.
With the coming of the new season we've been receiving calls from many of our store customers and almost all of them ask about the koi at the store. I wanted to let you all know that they are all (with the exception of Smiley) healthy and happy and back to their old loving selves. I really think they miss the attention they used to get!
What I'd like to do in the future is begin an online "koi collection" or something like that where we all can post pictures of our favorite koi (and goldfish). One thing that has always bothered me about koi clubs is that the "ugly ducklings" are never given any attention. I'm proud to have a few "ugly ducklings" because they have special places in my heart. Some of our koi are excellent quality koi while some are family members who will never win a beauty contest.
I will have to figure out how to format the online koi collection ... But in the meantime, here are my "babies". It's by no means all of them, just a few of the more well-known and, of course, my favorites.
