Alison somehow talked us in to letting her bring a hermit crab home from the beach. We bought the cage and got the hermit crab for "free". Well, Myrtle (as Alison named her) made the trip from Myrtle Beach just fine. She even got to go in with us to eat lunch on our way back. Alison noticed that this morning that she hadn't moved much. We came home this afternoon and of course the first thing Alison wanted to do was check on Myrtle. Well, as soon as Alison (and Nicole) got to her room, I started to hear loud sobs from both of the girls. I knew that something bad had happened to Myrtle. Alison said that when she picked her up she just fell apart. Sure enough parts of Myrtle were on the bottom of the cage. Chris did a google search on this and found out that hermit crabs often "fall apart" as a result of stress while adapting to a new environment...who knew....they forgot to mention that when we purchased Myrtle. We learned that there is nothing really you can do for hermit crabs when this happens and that they soon perish...so we had to say good bye to Myrtle.
I felt terrible about the whole situation, Alison thought that she had done something wrong and Nikki drew a sad picture of two little girls crying. Anyway, I made an EMERGENCY trip to Pet Partners and returned with not one hermit crab but TWO (the girl at the store said I needed two so they could be buddies...good sales pitch!). Now we have the penthouse of crab habitats and two very happy crabs(not sure how you tell if a hermit crab is happy but they seem happy). Alison named hers Beth (she said she named it after me - Beth is my middle name...I've never had a hermit crab named after me) and Nicole named hers Hailey.
This is Nicole's new friend - Hailey
This is Alison's new friend - Beth
2 comments:
Hehehehe...how terrible!! I rememeber having a hermit crab as a pet when I was a kid and it "fell apart" too!!! That was back in the day before Internet, so we had no idea why. We figured it was because he/she missed being at the beach...it's a good thing we don't "fall apart" quite like that when we're under stress...then again, some of us do! :o)
Welcome home. Glad you had a GREAT time. The pictures look fantastic and definitely look like you had a fabulous vacation!
They just fall apart?!? How traumatic for a kid. I would not have known that either. Looks like I may go to the beach in September, so I'll be sure to remember that in case I decide to get a "Myrtle" for the boys.
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