The Ballad of Charlie and Leonard

The San Diego Zoo has announced the theft of its prized koi, Charlie. In a tearful statement, zoo administrator Randall Bowlton briefed the press on the world famous institution’s loss. “We are without a single clue as to how this could have happened. All we know is that at closing time yesterday Charlie and best friend Leonard were happily frolicking in their enclosure, and at feeding time this morning, Charlie was gone, vanished.

Best friend Leonard is a 22 lb. Canada Lynx. The giant ornamental carp, Charlie, and Leonard the lynx, gained international notoriety ten years ago when both animals were young.

The baby lynx had escaped his enclosure and found his way to the koi pond exhibit. After hours of searching, the feline was discovered there by zoo staff, the cat gazing soulfully into the pond, eyes following little Charlie’s every move. It was instantly clear that the two young animals had bonded. Since then the two have been inseparable.

For a decade the duo, favorites of children and adults alike, have enchanted zoo goers with their antics. Leonard at his perch on the bank, would constantly dip his front paws into the water, trying desperately to pet, or “low five” his scaly best buddy, while Charlie would good-naturedly taunt him by darting to the far end of the pond, sometimes leaping entirely out of his watery home, and shooting Leonard a wide eyed look in a display of camaraderie.

Marine biologists are at a loss to explain how a thief could have made off with the three-foot long giant goldfish, without being detected. “It’s just sad, they had so many good years to look forward to,” Bowlton lamented.

While a lynx can live to 26 years, a carp can live up to 52 years and one legendary finner named Hanako is said to have reached the age of 226.

In a heartbreaking display of an animal mimicking human emotion, the grief stricken Leonard has been unable to eat for the three days since his pal’s theft, though his belly seems unusually distended, and somehow the lynx chow in his bowl had been replaced with tarter sauce.