Live goldfish mysteriously shows up in Plaza Midwood – at couple’s backdoor.

Listings for lost animals are usually for dogs and cats, maybe a reptile or two. But a couple in Charlotte has learned even the most unexpected pets can go missing.

Dan McCorkle was in his backyard in Plaza Midwood on Monday, when he discovered a 7-inch goldfish lying on concrete near his home’s backdoor.

Then, to McCorkle’s surprise, the fish opened its mouth.

“I had the ‘it’s alive’ moment,” McCorkle, a Democratic consultant from Charlotte, wrote on Facebook, explaining that he acted quickly to put the animal in a kiddie pool to let it swim.

McCorkle and his partner, Jane Whitley, were then tasked with finding the fish’s owner.

“Is anyone in the neighborhood missing a fish?” Whitley, Mecklenburg Democratic chair, asked on social media.

They posted a notice for the lost fish on the NextDoor app, and were led to their neighbor Deborah Triplett, a Charlotte artist.

Triplett, coincidentally, was missing a fish from the pond in her yard.

“I looked at their address and I thought, my goodness, maybe it’s one of my fish,” Triplett told TV station Fox 46.

McCorkle was able to release the fish back into the pond, but it’s a mystery how the koi made it to his backyard. He and Whitley have a theory, however.

The nearest creek is a quarter mile away from their home, he wrote. They think the fish fell out of the sky and into their backyard, possibly by a large bird of prey that caught the fish and lost its grip midflight.

“My guess, Owl or Hawk scooped it,” McCorkle wrote.

This story was originally published February 14, 2018 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Live goldfish mysteriously shows up in Plaza Midwood – at couple’s backdoor.."