Hello! What's This?

I announced a few months ago that the last of the goldfish was gone - probably eaten by the raccoon that hangs out around that water bucket. I have seen neither hide nor hair...nor scale of any goldfish since that day. I've even emptied the bucket, washed it out and refilled it. No kidding!

So, it's freezing here and the livestock's water buckets have frozen. So today I sent Tom out with a bucket of hot water to pour into the buckets so the animals could have a drink. He went out and poured the water for one bucket, went and dumped the ice (and little bit of water) out of the other, then came back to the house for more hot water. I went out with him and while he was pouring the water in, he looked over at the pile of ice and said, "Hey! There's a goldfish!" And it's tail was flapping feebly.

He quickly scooped it up and put it in the water. It was able to swim around, but barely could stay upright. So, if we didn't kill it from dumping it out on the ground to suffocate, we might have killed it from putting it in the hot water.

So, where was that little fish hiding all this time?