Birthday Surprise!

We haven't had pets in this house since our last fish, Katie, died and joined so many of her tank buddies had died months before. We emptied the fish tank and put it away when that happened - after almost a year of struggling with multiple problems, which we think the root of had something to do with our water, we were done. What's the point of having a fish tank if you can never see the fish? And I don't even want to think about the money we poured into that project.

But the kids still wanted to have a pet. They decided on a turtle, I'm not sure why. So I started to do some research, and found that a better choice for us may be hermit crabs. Turtles come with more potential problems, like many live in water (so we'd be back to where we were with the fish tank), some carry salmonella, and they're not all that friendly - they bite and are fast. So the kids wouldn't be able to handle them much. And if the turtles do well, they could live 20 or more years, and while chances of a pet living in this house making it that long are slim, I'm pretty sure the kids don't have a 20 year attention span for a turtle. And I have no desire to be a turtle owner long after they have left the house.

Hermit crabs, on the other hand, are fairly easy to take care of. The kids can handle them some, and the cage should be fairly easy to clean (at least easier than a water change in the fish tank). Plus they love their pretty shells. So I did some research both at home and in the pet store, and talked the kids into having them as pets instead of turtles (at least for now).

So then it was a question of when we would get the crabs. About a month ago I had the idea of surprising Sam on his actual birthday, since the party and presents would take place the Saturday before his Tuesday birthday. And we knew we wanted to get Maria one too, so hers is a reward for doing so well on her OAT's. And every time in the last few weeks Sam would ask, "Do you know when we're going to get our hermit crabs?" and I'd say "I know, but I can't tell you." And he would get a little mad that I wouldn't tell him.

But even so, the kids had no idea where we were headed right after school yesterday until we were almost there, and the only real choices were either Wal-Mart or Jack's Aquarium. And we had a decent salesmen who talked directly to the kids about how to care for their crabs and showed them how to handle them. Plus the crabs have a 30 day guarantee, which means they'll probably live for 31 days.

Maria and Sam helped set up the terrarium, and they both like to squirt the crabs too (the crabs breathe through gills and so have to be squirted with water a few times a day. Sam named his crab "Sheldon," and Maria named hers "Larry." Larry has a red shell and Sheldon has a baseball shell. So far Larry is by far the more active crab, climbing the walls of the terrarium quite a bit. That's why there is a better picture of Larry than of Sheldon - Sheldon will peak out of his shell, then retreat back in before you can get back with the camera.