chilled out

Chilli the siamese fighting fish has passed away. Chilli has been a good pet, causing us no trouble, just quietly doing laps of the vase and tolerating Jasmine (the cat) drinking his water. Chilli was our second siamese fighting fish, our first fighting fish was also named Chilli (I liked the name) although Chilli the first met his death through an unfortunate circumstance, which goes something like this:

The scene - winter, it's cold in the loungeroom
Me to B and the Next Sister Down who is visiting: Do you think Chilli is feeling cold?
B: I think he's all right
Me sticking a finger in the water : He's a tropical fish isn't he? The water is cold!
So I turn on the new MicroFurnace ceramic heater and place the vase (fish bowl) in front of the heater.
B: What are you doing?
Me: I'm warming the water up a bit for him
Next Sister Down: I don't think that is such a good idea
Me: It's all right
A couple of minutes later...
Next Sister Down: I think that's enough, you'll end up cooking him
Me: Don't be silly, it'll take ages before it heats up, look he's swimming around now, he was cold
Next Sister Down: I think you're wrong..... I think he's in the throws of death
A few kamakazi dives later and I had to admit she was right.

Chilli the second, was not given any such helping hand from me apart from a sprinkling of food each day. He had lasted 2-3 years, and we kind of expected he would be with us for while yet. We had a bit of a chuckle earlier in the day when Nat, who will be houseminding for us in a couple of weeks, said we had better get her a photo of the fish cause she couldn't see him in the bowl, and should he die on her she would need to know what to replace him with. We just laughed it off. So it was with some suprise to find him dead this evening.