I am not sure that I have mentioned anything about feeding the animals but Jan & Steve asked us to look after theirs whilst they were in Australia. We didn’t mind feeding them, after all, Jan looked after our affairs whilst we were in India for 3 months and Jan very kindly said we could stay at their house any time we liked whilst they were away. They don’t have many pets, just a tankful of tropical fish in the lounge, 3 normal fish in the kitchen and Buster the rabbit and Norman the guinea pig who both live in the utility room. Steve said we only needed to feed them every other day but on our first visit after Jan & Steve had left for Oz, we found 3 dead floating on the top of the tropical fish tank, we decided to go every day. Phil was alarmed straight away because he thought the light in the tank should have been on and he couldn’t see any bubbles. We decided that the lights had blown so straight away we went to Morrison’s to get new bulbs but when we put these in, the lights still didn’t work. On further exploration, we found that Steve had the lights on the timer. Phew, we breathed a sigh of relief, put the old lights back in, scooped out the dead fish and went home, not feeling too concerned.
Phil felt uneasy about the 3 dead fish so he went round the following day, only to find 10 more dead fish. OMG, now he was really upset. He remembered that Jimmy had once kept tropical fish so he phoned him for some advice. Jim said that it was very likely to be a problem with the tank and the fish most probably weren’t getting enough oxygen or heat. Something like that anyway, I can’t quite remember. Phil emailed Steve and sometime later he phoned Phil and said it might be a blocked pipe and told him what to twiddle. Phil went back round to twiddle and whatever Steve told him to do, seemed to work and all was good until Friday, when he discovered another 2 dead fish. Oh dear. There was most definitely a problem with the tank and in hindsight we should have called a tropical fish specialist to fix it first thing last week and had we have done, we could have saved the fish.
Now if you think 15 dead fish wasn’t bad enough, think again, the worst was yet to follow. So concerned about the fish, Phil went round to Jan & Steve’s every day last week but on Sunday, he had a hangover and couldn’t move off the sofa. We thought missing a day wouldn’t matter, but oh dear, when he went very early on Monday morning to feed the animals before collecting the small wheeled base transit van that we’d hired, he arrived only to find Buster very still in his cage. He phoned me on the landline in a total panic telling me he thought Buster was dead. Now I knew that Buster was very old, but even I was shocked, how bad luck to be looking after a good friend’s pets and have nearly all of them die on you!!!!!
After Phil phoned me, I phoned Sue. She is the only friend that I know that has her mobile switched on permanently and is up any time, day or night. I’m afraid with all the dramas and misfortune of this week (and more about that another time) that Sue has been my ‘phone a friend’. Not only have I seen her every day but I have phoned her at least once a day with some or other crisis. Now the reason for phoning Sue about Buster, was because when she was round for supper last Saturday, she was telling me and Phil, that she once looked after a neighbour’s rabbit and it went and died on her. When her neighbour got back from holiday she insisted on getting an autopsy. Phil remembered this tale also and decided to leave Buster in his cage and not do anything until he’d emailed Steve and told him the sad news.
Whereas Sue has been my ‘phone a friend’ this week, Phil’s’ phone a friend’ has been Jimmy. He phoned him on Monday afternoon, quite forgetting that Jimmy doesn’t work on a Monday and it was Shirley that picked up the phone. Phil told her about Buster and Shirley, being typical Shirley, burst out laughing. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel for Buster but I don’t think she could believe our bad luck. I am sorry but I had to laugh myself when she said to Phil “I bet that poor guinea pig is shitting himself”.
Steve emailed back in Oz and said that Buster was very old and that it wasn’t Phil’s fault; he told him where the keys were for the patio doors and on Tuesday we buried poor Buster in Jan & Steve's back garden. I have to say that he looked very content in his cage and both Phil & I think he died peacefully in his sleep. The rabbit dying on him has really upset Phil. So much so that on Monday morning he felt physically sick. He couldn’t think about anything else for the whole day. Poor Phil; over the last week he had become quite attached with Buster the rabbit and Norman the guinea pig, they had formed a bond.
Poor Buster; R.I.P. my furry friend.
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