For Dale and Roy koi, it's happy tails for two

Correspondent

VIRGINIA BEACH

Mindy Henderson was unsure what to do when Dale and Roy outgrew her backyard pond.

"I felt so bad for them," Henderson said about the koi fish she bought as babies several years ago. The fish started out 2-inches long and grew to approximately 14 inches.

Henderson's prayers were answered when she learned that Stuart Chesson, owner of Koizilla Monster Ponds, was starting an educational and adoption program called Adopt-a-Koi to find koi new homes.

"I knew I had to get rid of them for their sake," said Henderson, who lives in Chesapeake. "They could barely turn around in my pond anymore and looked trapped."

Each fish costs between $100 and $300 to adopt depending on its size and type. Chesson is donating half of each sale to the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"They're not algae; they're living things," said Sharon Adams, executive director for the Virginia Beach SPCA. "Unfortunately, it happens with all sorts of animals and they're put at risk.

"We share the same role as environmentalists and wildlife protectors," she said. "It's a wonderful idea that needs to be celebrated."

Henderson was the first participant in the program and made a $100 donation to support it.

Chesson transported Dale and Roy to his three-acre location at 232 Centerville Turnpike North in Chesapeake. That's where he keeps 6,000-gallon tanks with filtration, ultraviolet and sterilization systems, built on an animal shelter model especially for the Adopt-a-Koi program.

One tank is designated for rescued koi to undergo a quarantine period and the other houses adoptabble koi.

"People who have no alternatives for their pets leave them to suffer their own fate or release them into a river," said Chesson. Adopt-a-Koi gives them a choice.

A pipeline of fish owners have donated their fish to the Adopt-a-Koi program, which has approximately 70 to date.

"One gentleman is moving and donated 50 and the other has 20 koi that have outgrown his pond," Chesson said.

Henderson is celebrating despite missing the two large fish.

"I go out there every day and look for them," said Henderson, who found two dozen koi babies in her pond after Dale and Roy left. "But I know Stuart will find them a new pond to call home."

Sandra J. Pennecke, pennecke@cox.net