Snappy

The snail filled summer continues... This is snail number 3. His name is Snappy. A few weeks ago, Aidan found another snail on our walk. We were headed to the area where we usually find snails and I wasn't finding any. Aidan said, "Let's look in there." He was referring to a bunch of trees in a median in a circle drive. I said, "Sure." And was thinking I was humoring him. Sure enough if we didn't find a snail in there. The kid has snail radar, I swear. So we had to take it home. All was going well. Aidan wanted to walk by the lakes. About this time the snail decides to come out of his shell and have a look around. Aidan of course wants to hold him and carry him around. I figured it couldn't hurt. Aidan climbed on one of the benches, which was diamond weave and sat the snail down. It kept falling through the holes and getting stuck. I thought I was helping the situation and the snail and said, "Here let's set him right here. It will be more comfortable." And so I sat him on the arm of the bench. It had rained quite a bit the night before. And I'll be darned if that snail didn't fall off the arm of the bench and into the leg, which was filled with water. There was no way I could reach it. I killed his snail. I felt horrible. I recovered. I told Aidan I couldn't reach the snail, which was the truth, and that the snail would crawl out and go back his family. We could find the snail again later.

Well this week, Aidan found another snail, in the same clump of trees. Snail radar, I'm telling you. We got him home safely, named him Snappy, and built him a home. I kept this snail until Dada got home from work so he could see Aidan with him. The next day, Snappy escaped and went home to be with his family. I wonder how many more snails are in our future.