Gobsmacked woman finds fish bought for dinner still alive - and rehomes it

27 February 2023 , 15:28

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Cindy Lao, from Cheltenham, pictured with her partner Paul Lewis-Borman (Image: Paul Lewis-Borman)

A woman claims she almost jumped out of her skin to find a fish she'd planned to cook still alive - so kept it in her bath instead.

Lazarus the fish was just minutes away from becoming dinner when his eagle-eyed cook spotted he wasn't quite dead.

Cindy Iao was preparing a meal for herself and friends at Chinese New Year when she noticed the carp's gills were miraculously still moving.

Cindy, from Cheltenham, visited friends in London and had bought back several sea bass and Crucian carp for a feast to celebrate.

But despite the fish being on ice for 48 hours and kept in Cindy's fridge overnight, one of them appeared to have defied all odds and survived.

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Lazarus the fish was just minutes away from becoming dinner (Paul Lewis-Borman)

She called her partner Paul Lewis-Borman to the kitchen as she could not quite believe what she was seeing, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Springing into action, she ran a bath and slung Lazarus in before it was too late.

Paul said: "She called me down as she had thought she had seen the Crucian carp’s gills moving and asked me what I thought. They certainly were.

"I was in two minds of whether to put the poor thing out of its misery but Cindy said ‘no, it is a miracle he is still alive’. So we got a bowl of water to put him in."

Despite struggling at first, Lazarus began to return to normal after 20 minutes in the water making a full recovery, and has since been rehomed with some new friends.

"We had nowhere to keep him except the bath and luckily we have another shower room.

"Needless to say he could not stay there and it did put you off when you were trying to use the toilet.

"Lazarus, as he is now known, needed to be rehoused, if for no other reason than my girlfriend was then paying the fish more attention than she did me.

"In the picture, you can see how quickly things can change, 24 hours before he was going to be dinner."

Paul posted on a forum called Pets4Homes and a lady with a pond with Koi carp in it came forward and said she would happily give Lazarus a good home.

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Paul added: "He had been through a lot. He was sandwiched between all those dead fish for all that time and was nearly dinner.

"Cindy certainly bought fresh fish that day.

"We are pleased he now has a good home. The lady told us he now has a best fish friend who he happily is swimming about within his new home."

Susie Beever