The problem with pets

We have killed two Siamese fighting fish and also a snail, which made me jump out of my skin one night, so we have put on hold any thoughts about adopting a stray cat.

I was reading late one night, the air-conditioning was off as it was a chilly evening, and most of the appliances were switched off, even my noisy laptop, which makes this curious whirring sound when no one pays it any attention. It was very quiet in the room.

Suddenly, there was a thumping noise, as if someone had slapped his palm on a tabletop. I jumped up, ready to flee or fight, when a second later there was a sharp, cracking sound.

Disoriented, I hurried to the balcony door to check whether someone had thrown a stone and cracked the glass, and nearly stepped on the slippery, slimy snail.

The silly creature must have slowly, painstakingly, climbed the side of the large fish bowl we had put it in along with the fighting fish and must have decided it had had enough of his roommate and thought of its escape plan.

The snail must have teetered on the lip of the bowl, couldn't hold on and fell on our ‘Made in Malaysia' dining table, rolled off and hit the tiled floor with its shell. After that day, it was never the same again and one day we found it floating in the bowl.

The Thai fish came into our lives purely by chance. I was trawling the streets of Karama one day when an aquarium with colourful fish swimming in formation caught my eye and I stepped into the shop and into a fascinating new hobby.

On a shelf in the corner were tiny bowls and inside it were green and gloriously red-coloured fish, hovering stationary in the water. As I tapped the side of the bowl, the fish, the size of my pinkie, flared up and displayed its fan-like tail, which one hobbyist describes as a ‘satin sheet blowing in the breeze'.

Whole websites have been devoted to this fish, called Betta splendens, and its care. My research showed that these fish do not die like goldfish when you put them in a bowl — they are very low-maintenance. Ironically, the male fighting fish are the pretty ones and the females the plain variety.

Moody

Our fish was very moody, though I had bought it a much bigger bowl than it was used to. It would ignore the flakes we sprinkled in the bowl and went hungry for two days until desperately I ran back to the shop and was told these fish only eat blood worms.

The worms came refrigerated and in small receptacles like the tiny jam servings you get on the plane. The fish loved it and when I held one dangling from a toothpick it jumped out of the water and snatched it.

But I think we killed it with kindness and one day it too was floating, and I had to hide it from my son as he had grown quite attached to it, bury it surreptitiously under a tree and quickly get another one.

This one I think we froze to death because of the constant air-conditioning in our house. As I was away on a trip, my wife flushed it down the toilet and decided we should never have any pets as the trauma was too much for our child.

I read somewhere that pets are good for children. Psychiatrists believe that children who grow up with pets tend to be more caring towards other individuals. Pets teach so many life lessons to the children that they are a worthy investment, said the article.

I secretly researched about hamsters and had gone to the mall and checked out one cute, brown, perky one. I decided to go back the next day, but the whole mall burned down overnight.