Five-year-old with a new heart will toss a catfish at the Predators game
Stanley the Catfish has rubberband whiskers, a round nose and a pair of dark eyes with long lashes drawn in black Sharpie.
He’s made out of a white hospital towel, the creation of a caring nurse for a little boy awaiting a heart transplant.
During the six months that Caleb Daniel lived at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital last year, the sandy-haired boy often would sit on the side of his hospital bed and toss Stanley over the edge onto the floor.
Just like the Nashville Predators fans at the hockey games he watched on TV.
Stanley has been a faithful companion to Caleb, getting the 5-yearold through the absolute hardest parts of his young life. But on Saturday, for just a little while, Caleb will set the fuzzy catfish aside — in favor of a slimier one.
As the Predators face off against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoff series, Caleb will toss a real catfish onto the ice.
One he picked out himself.
Caleb walked into Little’s Fish Market on Friday afternoon with Stanley clutched in his small hands.
Eyes wide and nose scrunched up at the sour smell, he peered into glass cases filled with pink salmon and white Alaskan cod.
And he met a catfish-tossing legend.
Tom Dennis smuggled his first fish into Bridgestone Arena last May during the NHL playoffs.
Strapped on his back with Ace bandages, its scaly tail pointing down, the catfish made an
appearance on the ice during the 2017 Western Conference Final against the Anaheim Ducks.
It wore a yellow Preds rally towel like a cape. It made a big splash with fellow fans. So Dennis decided to do it again.
The second fish got fancier, boasting a sparkly blue hat. That one became internet famous. As did the fish that followed.
Dennis had quite a reputation by the time he met Ashley and Zack Daniel later that fall at a fundraising event for High Hopes, a development and therapy center that serves kids with special needs.
Caleb’s parents shared the story of their son.
Dennis made plans to toss a special catfish on the ice dedicated to Caleb.
It was, he said, “where silly turned cool.”
It turned “into something really special.”
Later that week, the Daniel family got the call they had been waiting for — Caleb would have his transplant.
“It was surreal,” Ashley Daniel says.
Caleb was born with half a heart.
He had three openheart surgeries by the time he was 4. After the
third, doctors placed Caleb on the transplant list, and the Daniel family moved into the hospital full-time.
One afternoon, Caleb had two very special visitors — Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne and forward Mike Fisher were there saying hello to the young patients.
Caleb befriended Pekka and “Mr. Mike,” and he fell in love with the game.
Wearing a mask over his nose to keep out the germs and tugging an IV pole with the medicine that kept his heart working, Caleb would play hockey in the hospital hallways.
He would put his hand over his heart, and sing the “Nashville anthem.” He would toss Stanley over the rail of his hospital bed, as if it were the glass around the rink.
He would shoot goals and send nurses to the penalty box.
He would celebrate with his life-size cutout of Rinne.
“He could hardly walk,” his mom remembers. “But he could hold a stick.”
And at night, he would watch the games on his iPad, his parents snuggled in bed next to him as doctors and nurses came in and out cheering.