Tony Blair was Prime Minister, Liverpool reigned supreme as UEFA Cup champions, and an unknown child actor called Daniel Radcliffe was about to make his big movie debut when Nicol Arathoon paid a visit to her local garden centre and bought a goldfish in a plastic bag.
The beautician was just 16 when she purchased Sparky in 2001. Now a 38-year-old mum of two, Nicol remains the proud owner of what could be the oldest goldish in Merseyside, as Sparky is still swimming to this day, despite a recent health scare.
Nicol said: "He's part of the furniture. I'd be lost without him. I was not giving up on him. Everyone was saying flush him down the toilet, put him out of his misery, but I wasn't having it."
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Nicol, from Ellesmere Port, bought Sparky from Burleydam Garden Centre along with another goldfish - which died the very next day.
She said: "We bought two fish and then he killed the other one. The other one was dead the next day. We've added fish to his tank later on and they've all died, so we think he's been killing them. We call him Sparky the Sharky."
Nicol thought her pet's time was up eight weeks ago when she found him curled up at the bottom of his tank. But he perked up after Nicol spent £60 on swim bladder treatments, and switched his food from 99p pellets to premium flakes.
She said: "I was giving him dried garden peas because I heard it was good for them, I bought proper expensive food for him. When he was curled up in a ball he couldn't get up to get his food, so I was using a straw to push the peas into his mouth, and I was nursing him basically.
"In the end, before I went on holiday I said to my partner if he's still sick when we come back, I'm taking him to a fish vet.
"We put the last bit (of medicine) in the tank just before we went away, and when we came back a week later at half four in the morning we were like - oh my God, he's swimming! We didn't even think he was going to be alive, but somehow he survived it.
"It's a miracle. I'm really in shock. I'm amazed. I've been crying over him and everything."
This is not the first time Sparky has had a lucky escape, as he was found floating upside down in his tank six years ago after a run-in with a sausage roll.
But he made a miraculous recovery - which inspired Nicol and her partner Paul to have the plucky fish's name tattooed on their arms.
Nicol said: "My niece threw a sausage roll in the tank. We had a really bad scare, I was crying my eyes out because he looked like he was dead and he was belly-up at the top of the tank. We just changed his water, and he came back to life.
"He jumped out once; we were changing his water and he leapt out of the jug. He landed on the kitchen floor. That was when we first got him and he was quite young then, but God knows how old he was when we bought him.
"I've always said when he does pass I want him taken to a vet to see how old he really is, because there's every chance he's older. He's definitely the oldest fish from around here."
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