Flying fish

One of my students gave me two tiger fish for Christmas. Yippee, I think...I've never had fish as pets before! I duly named them after two of my more rambunctious students and settled into my new role as fish owner. Fast forward a few hours and that role is quickly demolished. I was reading on my bed and noticed the fish making a lot of noise in the water. "Could the fish possible jump out of the bowl?" I think. "Nah, never." Carrie assures me. I'm assuming that the prospect of living in a fishbowl was too bleak for one my swimmers because when I came home from shopping there was only one fish left in the bowl. The fish jumped out and met a very sorry ending on the base of my bed.

That night I commented to Carrie that the other fish might be lonely and could possibly jump. Again, "nah, never..." Until I got home and realized that the bowl was now completely empty. Apparently swimmer no. 2 believed his friend had made it to a better place and wanted to check it out himself. But where is it? I searched around the bowl, knocked over and smashed a bottle of wine while checking beneath my mattress and still, no fish. I had to summon Craig from downstairs to come investigate and scoop out the dead animal that had lodged itself between the base and headboard of my bed. Heart breaking. So I am now sans fish and have little desire to buy new ones. My first experience was hardly encouraging. I knew that fish had a short life span but I definitely didn't expect them to only live a few hours!