When the doggie’s away
Now that Hitch has found a permanent home, the crabs have moved back to their rightful place at the center of my pet world. Truthfully, I’ve not done much with them since Sylvester bit me on my birthday – he now comes fully out of his shell every time I pick him up; I’m not sure that we’re friends anymore. The months of virtual neglect have probably not helped his attitude.
Anyway, I look in the tank yesterday and everything is the same – they’re in their corners, not doing anything, one of their legs is just lying on the sand about four inches away. Wait, what? Apparently one of Molly’s legs has just broken clean off. I know they’re arthropods, but I still don’t think that’s a good thing. I care so much that I’ve actually gone to the Hermit Crab Association’s website to see if there are any remedies: scotch tape, what have you. There’s a place for “Memorials and Tributes.” It is “For beloved crabs who go to Hermie Heaven. This is not a reply area, but an area to post a tribute to your pet.” At least I’ll have someplace to mourn if this proves fatal. A grammatically incorrect place, but a place nonetheless.
Seriously though, how on earth do you just lose an arm? I’ve been walking the earth for 24 years and I’ve never lost one. I don’t even live in a (dare I start to pun?) hermitically – okay I don’t have anywhere to go with this - it’s not hermetically sealed, the lid’s off. I did have some kind of grand revelation about us all living in god’s tank, though. Running around thinking we have active movement, but really we’re just as bound by the earth as my crabs are in their tank. Actually, when I was a kid, and kind of believed in god, I had some bizarro idea about how the world was just god playing with toys in his bathtub. It kind of takes the regal mystery out of life, but it made sense at eight.
I feel like this has gotten away from Molly’s plight. I feel that this sentiment sort of sums up Molly’s life.
ps – Good news though, she’ll regain that limb when she molts. On the bad side, many hermit crabs die during molting. Such is life.
Sphere: Related Content