Meet Superman!!!

I realize that this picture is a little blurry....I'm sure there will be more to follow.  This was taken yesterday while he was getting his spa (misting, with special salt water)  treatment

Austin has wanted a Hermit Crab for the longest time. His brother used to beg me for a snake, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! I am not a fan of rodents or reptiles. I love dogs and cats, they are the kinds of pets that love you back.

When my first litter of kids were little they begged to have hamsters. Hamsters, as you know are rodents. I think there is nothing in the world that I loathe more than rodents. But, knowing how thrilled they would be to have them, I gave in. I not only gave in, I sat up one whole night once watching one of those hamsters give birth to about 16 hairless, pink, squirmy babies. (The hamster got pregnant when Patrick and his eighth grade sleep-over friends decided the nights entertainment would be sneaking his male hamster out of his cage and into the cage of little sister's female hamster. All unbeknownst to moi!).

So, as you can already tell, I'm a push-over. Austin has done the hamster thing as well. I can't remember how long the hamster lived but I know that it wasn't over six months. So, last weekend when we went to Petsmart to get a Furminator comb for Tucker, he started his campaign for another hamster. I was as bound and determined as he was that we were NOT coming home with a hamster. Then he wanted a chinchilla! NOT! Then he tried for a guinea pig! NOT! So by the time we were ready to pay for our purchases and leave, Austin looked like the saddest of little boys. Like I said, I'm a pushover! We looked around the store and I nixed: the bird, the chinchilla, the hamster, the guinea pig, and the most adorable kittens in the world. Eventually, we ended up in front of the hermit crabs. For the life of me I could not imagine why in the world he wanted one of those things, but want one he did. I decided that they couldn't be that much trouble and wanting to make him smile, I said he could get one. We came home with a "crab" house, crab food, crab water conditioner for drinking, crab water conditioner for bathing (yes, crabs bathe!), substrate for the bottom of the "crab"house, a special sponge and dish for crabs to drink out of, and a crab food bowl. But the most important thing we came home with was a very happy little boy! You would have thought I'd bought him his very own amusement park. We carefully set up Speedy's little "crab" house, fixed his food and water and settled him in Austin's room. Then we decided that we'd better read up on the care and feeding of hermit crabs. After printing many many pages of "instructions" from the web we thought we had all of our bases covered and would have a long life with Speedy.

Speedy immediately buried himself in the back corner of his little home and refused to come out. In our reading, we discovered that when brought to a new home that they will often do this. We decided to be patient and wait him out. About the middle of the week I began to worry about Speedy (Did I really just admit that I was worried about a crab?) I decided to do some more reading about the care and feeding of hermit crabs! I learned that we should have purchased a heating source for his "crab" house. Hmmm, could that be why Speedy wasn't moving?

On Friday night I stopped by Petsmart again and purchased the necessary heating pad. While I was there, the gods that help make little boys happy somehow planted the thought in my brain that I should take home another crab. And, so, I did.  When I got home with the heating pad and the new crab Austin was tickled to death. He and Patrick headed for his room to give Speedy some heat and a friend. While Austin was in the kitchen with me "fixing the crabs' supper", Patrick came downstairs carrying Speedy's shell upside down. Evidently when he picked him up, Speedy's dead and decaying body came crumbling ot of the shell. I quickly said a prayer of thanks to the "gods that help make little boys happy" that I'd brought home a new crab!

This one is named Superman. Austin loves him! He's bigger than Speedy was and he is happily moving about his "crab" house and eating his special crab food and gourmet (yes, that right, gourmet!) treats. His house is warm and clean and  he lets us (yes, that's right US!) hold him.

My Zodiac sign is Cancer the Crab. While watching him yesterday, I realized that I can relate to him on many levels. But if any of you think I'm going to spell them out here, well......DREAM ON! Let's just say that Superman and I have an understanding.