I'm such a sucker. I admit it.

The other day daughter asked for a black and white fan-tailed goldfish she saw in the petstore. Before I knew it, I was driving home with not one, but three fish: "Moo", "Baa" and "Meow" (no, I'm not kidding...)

I spent the rest of the day setting up an old aquarium, finding plants and gravel, but I needed some rocks for decor. So I headed out to the backyard and picked out two large specimens and scrubbed them free of dirt. I filled up the tank with water and started cleaning up the room while the water conditioned.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement in the tank. Unexpected to say the least, as I hadn't put the fish in yet. I took a closer look and couldn't believe what I saw. Swimming up from one of the rocks was a tiny spider, with a bubble of air around his head! He must have been hiding in the crevices of the rock.

My first thought was "Damn, why don't I have my camera?"

My next thought was to save the poor thing. I mean, he's going to all this effort to live, I might as well help. So I got a kleenex and dipped it in. The spider grabbed hold and I took him outside to the garden.

I felt so good. Beaming with heroic pride, I returned to the tank and transferred the fish to their new home. As I stood admiring my hard work, I saw a bubble on one of the plants leaning over that same creviced rock.

Oh crap, ANOTHER spider with a bubble had emerged (yeah, I DID do a great job washing it, didn't I?). I got out the kleenex to save the second tiny creature.

However, before I could reach him... Gulp!

"Moo" had his first meal.

Poor spider. My heroic pride was shattered. Well, I managed to save one.

At least I hope I did... that bird in the garden sure looked hungry.