At high school I had a persistent admirer, who gave me a small frog for my birthday. The frog was transparent and one had to feed him with tiny bits of raw meat. He caught the meat with his front legs, lifted the piece and bit into it. One could see how the meat moved through his digestive tract. The bigger and fatter he grew, the less one could see. He continuously lived in the water and I kept him in a small aquarium in my room.

My mother was disgusted by the frog and when I wanted to go skiing for two weeks, she refused to take care of my frog. Since I could not stand my admirer, it was difficult to find someone during the winter holidays who would be willing to take care of my frog. Finally I could convince Eva from my class to look after my frog. I brought the aquarium with my fat frog to her, gave clear instructions and went for my holidays.

After two weeks I came to pick up my frog and did not recognise him. He was small and transparent, almost smaller than when I had got him and he seemed very apathetic. I looked at Eva in surprise. Eva was known as a kind being, who could not do any harm to anyone. “Eva, what for heaven’s sake did you do with the frog?” I asked with raised eye brows. “Nothing”, she answered so quiet that I could hardly hear her. “Didn’t you feed the poor thing?” I asked astonished. “Of course, I tried it several times a day, but in the second week he did not want to eat at all”, Eva said with much stronger voice and Eva’s younger sister nodded her head, in order to emphasize Eva’s words. I understood the entire thing less and less. Was my frog sick? I wondered. “Strange”, I said and wanted to go home, when Eva’s dad entered the room. “That’s great that you take your frog home again. Finally one can take again a bath”, he said and walked away. “What does your dad mean?” I asked Eva.

Eva told me that they had found that the aquarium was too small and therefore they had filled the bath tub every evening so that my frog could swim for several hours. Thus the father had not been able to take a bath in the past two weeks.

Now it was clear what had happened to my frog. My frog loved stale water and he got fresh water only every two weeks. The daily shock of fresh water with chlorine bereaved him of his appetite and verve. I took my frog and walked home. The frog recovered fast, gained weight and was lively again.

Solicitousness has its limits, in particular, if it is about frogs and fresh chlorine water.