Lucky: Not sleeping with the fishes (From Worcester News)

Lucky: Not sleeping with the fishes

10:10am Friday 5th March 2010 in News By Alicia Kelly, @aliciakellyWN #worcsnews

A FISH has had a lucky escape after being rescued – from the middle of a back garden.

A stunned Worcester man woke up to discover the 1ft (0.3m) long sturgeon lying in the middle of his lawn in Bromwich Road, St John’s, but has no idea how it ended up there.

The fish, pictured above, was saved with the help of staff at Petlink Acquatics and Reptiles – who now plan to call it Lucky.

Clive Longstaff, the shop’s director, said: “I had a guy come banging on our door.

“He said, ‘I’ve got this thing in a bucket and I don’t know what it is’.

“He said he went down to his back garden and it was in the middle of the lawn. He thought it was dead and went to pick it up and he saw his gills move.”

Mr Longstaff said staff brought the distressed fish round and it was now swimming happily around a pond in the St John’s shop.

He said: “My guess is a heron has caught it, flew off with it and dropped it in the garden. My customer said there are no ponds around him so it’s either that or it’s been stolen or fished out by a cat – but there’s not a mark on him.” Mr Longstaff said he had never heard of a fish such as a sturgeon, which can grow up to 6.6ft (2m), surviving a spell out of water.

He said: “I think it might have been lucky because it rained during the night so the grass was wet.”

The fish was found yesterday morning and, unless anyone claims it, the shop will find it a new home.