This post is inspired by the book The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. I received a copy of the book to read as a member of the From Left to Write virtual book club.
A few weeks ago the Kiddo was able to put his desire to be an animal rescuer, and all of his patience to the test. We had the opportunity to pet sit our neighbor's pet: a hermit crab. I thought it'd be good practice to see how dedicated my son would be in case Santa acquiesces to his requests for a dog this year.
As soon the door closed behind our neighbor dropping off the crab, my son was pressed up against the dry aquarium. He watched and waited. He waited and watched. Five minutes passed and the hermit crab hadn't moved.10 minutes passed without movement. We turned off the lights and left the room.
I returned about 10 minutes later to excitedly call the Kiddo to come and look that the hermit crab has crawled off of his perch. Of course, my shouts to the other room promptly scared Hermie back into his shell. So it went that nearly 24 hours passed before the Kiddo actually got to see the hermit crab.
We learned quickly to lower our voices and became very aware of when we turned the lights on and off so as not to disturb him. Despite the ease of caring for Hermie, we were nervous that he'd die in our care. Following our neighbor's instructions, we moved him from under his aquarium tunnel hideout to set him on top of a soaked sponge, and simply see later on if he'd moved from there to make sure he was still alive.
For his part, the Kiddo was careful and attentive to the crab, eagerly asking us to soak the sponge that was in Hermie's home each day. He gets an A+ for pet sitting duties. As for Hermie, we barely knew he was here. Yet somethow he must have known it was his last night with us when we grabbed the Flip cam and that li'l hermit crab put on a show for us - coming out of his shell and eating more than he had his entire weeklong stay!
In case you were wondering...this is the sound of a hermit crab eating:
To read how other bloggers were inspired by this book, visit From Left to Write.
How fun! And totally hilarious that your son wasn't able to see the hermit crab in action for the first day. What a great opportunity to teach him about having a pet... So, will there be a dog under the tree this year?
Posted by: Lisa | June 07, 2011 at 08:24 PM
What a great time to be reading this book! Good job to all on your crabsitting duties, but that was one of the most disgusting things I've ever watched! I could never have had a pet snail either!
Posted by: Emily | June 08, 2011 at 02:33 PM