Day 157: The Adventures of Dmitri

I have a room-mate, and his name is Dmitri.  Now he's not another foreign English Teacher, he's a beautiful little maroon Samurai fighting fish.  He was originally Brad's pet (and then Steve's for a while) but I inherited/adopted little Dmitri when I took over Brad's apartment.  He's been great company and the ideal room-mate.  He's a great listener, doesn't make much mess, doesn't give me any attitude or lip, puts up with my really bad singing as I get dressed in the morning, and is always so happy when I feed him.  (If only all roomies were like this!)

I've always liked fish actually, and I've enjoyed having him in the apartment with me.  I think he's kinda mad at me though right now, and that *may* have to do with the fact that I almost killed him tonight...  Oops!  ;-)

I had to clean his bowl and in order to do that I had to remove him and put him in a small cup of water while I cleaned out his little round home.  Not wanting to refill his bowl with gross Seoul water, I had bought a big jug of spring water to give to him once it was all cleaned out.  The problem was that it was way too cold to put him back in yet (the jug was in the fridge) so I had to make him wait a while in that little cup while the water returned to room temperature.

Well Dmitri, like his owner, doesn't have much patience and hates to wait.  I was on the computer when I heard this little *bloop* noise....  Not thinking it was anything, I continued with my email until I realized, "OMG!  What if that noise was Dmitri!!!"  I ran to the kitchen and his little cup was empty!  Where was Dmitri???

I looked down in horror into my kitchen sink and saw my little friend - swimming in a disgusting fesspool of bacteria water in a kitchen pot, leftover from my pasta sauce that I had made three days earlier!  Oh Dear God - Poor Dmitri!!!  I scooped out my little purple companion, scolded him gently, and placed him back in the cup.  I guess the sneaky little bastard decided to show me up by giving me a scare!  Cheeky bugger!

A few minutes later I had him back in his clean home, and he swam around in happy circles.  But he hasn't looked me in the eye since that day though, and gives me the silent treatment every time I try to talk to him.  I keep telling him that if this relationship of ours is going to work, it takes a lot of open, honest communication, but he's a stubborn prick and won't open up at all. 

*sigh* 

Does anyone know how to help make a feisty fighting fish forgive you?