Ryan had a big heart, and a very chatty lifestyle. Our first day in our new apartment he spent the day knocking on doors of neighbors just to meet people - so its no surprise that this method of socializing would be the reason he knew Stan. Stan was a retired veteran from the Vietnam war, and the day Ryan met him he spent the whole day with him and came home with so many stories and so excited to make this friend. Not long after, Stan wanted to meet me - and when I met him I understood why Ryan and him clicked so well.
We would spend several nights at a time there and just listen to Stan tell stories about his wife, his war stories, and best of all - his fish.
One day while I was at work, I got a text from Ryan that said something like "So...can I keep some fish at your house until we get a place?" I replied, and of course he didn't elaborate, he just quit talking. I got off work that night and went to Stan's to find that we had just adopted three of the ugliest looking eel fish. Soon those were sent off to a better home, and we were setting our sites on where to put the new 175 gallon fish tank that would include five Oscars and one Jack Dempsey. Four of the Oscars were black tigers, one was albino, and the Dempsey (cleverly named Jack) was gorgeous. Sadly, Jack didn't like living with the black tiger oscars, so he killed three of the four right before he jumped out of the tank and died too. :( So we decided to add to the fish and got a sucker fish and a pacu. Then came together our family. Scooter, Trooper, Sushi and Paco were our boys - and goodness were they spoiled!
The big move to Denver was almost too much for Paco and the night we moved stuff in we actually stayed up most of the night nursing him back to life. Those guys meant so much to Ryan he would treat them like dogs. Coming home from a long day out, he would go say hi to them, give them treats, even stick his hand in the tank to pet them! Keep in mind, these are carnivorous fish, with big sharp teeth, but he always said "They know their daddy, they would never bite me!"
Soon after we moved into our apartment, we adopted some real live red belly piranhas. Lord knows why - we already had a handful with the boys - but Ryan had been determined for so long to have real full blooded piranhas. In case anyone has already wondered by now - yes, Ryan would pet the piranhas too! I have no idea how he never once got attacked by these guys, maybe they really did know their daddy and wouldn't dare "bite the hand that feeds," but either way it was so much fun to watch him admire the fish and research them. He sincerely cared about them, and it made me smile to see him take pride in his boys.
Love you Ry...
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