Whenever I'm going to be gone for an extended period of time, my office colleagues fish-sit my beta Russ. I align the experience of leaving children at Grandma's house. Russ of course can do no wrong and he is the most interesting thing there ever was. "Do I feed him enough?" they ask.
When it was time to take him home after my trip to Chicago in March, most of the office was quite sad and protested his leave. After many promises to be good to him, they finally allowed him to come home. To fill the void, Molly purchased her own beta, Willy.
Now Russ was 2 years older than Willy. He was not a spry but certainly had great fish wisdom. Molly wanted to test out the "fighting fish" idea behind the beta. She placed their two tanks right next to each other. Willy being the energized youngster flared his fins and prepared for battle. Russ being well seasoned did little to raise a flipper. Willy continued to circle and attempted to attack Russ. Molly decided that while this live "animal planet" was interesting, it may not be the best way to care for my fish. She then returned Russ to the other office, out of Willy's view.
Willy was very annoyed at this as his hot pursuit was interrupted. Molly comes back 2 hours later to find Willy had disappeared, fish bowl still on her bookcase. Now fish don't typically "wonder off" so she assumed one of our office mates had played a practical joke. After hounding everyone and being met with sincere denials, she began the search of the floor around the book case.
There she found poor Willy flopping on the floor. Apparently in his pursuit of Russ, he forgot he was a fish that needed water. He jumped out of his bowl only fall behind the book case. He was still flopping when Molly returned him to the bowl but his injuries were too substantial. He died a few hours later.
Russ on the other hand is still calmly swimming in his bowl enjoying a great deal of admiration and affection. He is completely oblivious to his predator's demise. Had Willy humbled himself and swam away from the fight, he may still be with us today.
Rest in Peace Willy.
No comments:
Post a Comment