I have a goldfish. His name is Peanut. He is seven years old, and he is a feeder goldfish. I named him Peanut because he was as small as a peanut, and he was the same color as a peanut. I got him when I was one year old. He used to be gold, but now he is gold with silver spots. Let me tell you why.

When we weren't home, he jumped out of his bowl. He used to jump out of the water to get our attention so we would feed him.

That day we were gone at the store for a couple hours and so when he jumped all the way out, he got dried up on our counter. My mom peeled him off the counter because he was stuck to it. All of his scales on one side were stuck to the counter and he had no scales on one side. When my mom put him back in his bowl he couldn't move because he was all dried out. He just floated upside down. My Mom had to hold him right side up and move him back and forth in the water for about an hour, and then he was able to balance himself, and then he swam around. He eventually grew scales back but he is now gold and silver spotted.

Another experience he had was when we went on vacation to Hawaii. We left him at home with a housesitter and the heat went out. It was winter time. When the housesitter came the next morning he found him with his tail stuck in the ice. Most of his bowl of water had frozen except for the very bottom. The housesitter put the tank in the sink and ran warm water around it. The ice in the tank slowly melted away. And then Peanut swam around and apparently he was fine.

One time we didn't change his water for a long time and it was very dirty so he could not breathe. We found him upside down because he couldn't breathe. My Mom immediately put him in clean water. He was still floating upside down so my Mom had to revive him by holding him upright and moving him back and forth.

Having Peanut as my pet, I've learned to never give up even when life seems really hard. And even now, my goldfish is swimming in my tank.