Remember the little girl from Finding Nemo who has a problem with killing fish before they even get out of the bag from the store? Darla is her name. I totally felt like her today! I didn't go buy a fish from the store or anything and have it in that bag, but I definitely almost killed my mom's pet fish, Spike, this afternoon.My Mom left a note for me to change the water in his fish bowl, which involves scooping Spike out of the water in a blue plastic cup and letting him hang out there while his new water is cleaned by the chemical drops I put in there. So, after a minute of him resisting the process of getting into the cup, I finally catch him, clean out the old bowl, use the faucet from the bath tub to fill the bowl because his "bowl" is really a 2 foot tall jar that can't fit under a regular sink, add the drops of cleaner that need to do their work for 30 minutes, pull the jar out of the tub and leave it sitting on the edge of the bath. I left Spike alone to swirl in the blue plastic cup, next to the jar, on the edge of the tub. The EDGE of the tub. As I walked away I thought to myself, "Should I take some of the water out of the cup? It's filled to the top, surely he wouldn't be a moron and decide to jump out." Famous last words.
I came back two hours later...
I walked into the bathroom, the blue cup slowly came into view, first I could just see the top, he wasn't there, I figured he was hangin' out at the bottom, as I finally stood right above the cup able to see into the whole thing, he wasn't there! My gaze ventured into the tub... "AH!!! FISHY!!!" I had no idea how long he had been out of the water. He looked like he was in an air-locked vacuum, gasping for air (water) desperately all to no avail! I quickly took the blue cup and poured water on him and tried to get him into the cup so I could get him in his jar, but I guess he assumed I was the enemy because it took me several tries before he would cooperate. I dumped him in the jar and he enthusiastically swam in circles all the way to the bottom of the jar. Where he just laid on his side. Seeming to exert extra effort to breathe. For the next hour. I just sat there staring, hoping he wouldn't float to the top, belly up. He stared back, gasping. As we stared at each other I wondered if he was blaming me for his predicament, I was indeed the one who left the cup full of water by the edge. I told him it was his own lame-ass idea to jump out of the cup in the first place.
Eight hours later, he's still alive. And yes, I talk to my fish. :)
