Don't Count the Hermit Crab Out.

My sister has an odd history with small pets.  The feeder fish she won at a carnival ended up living 13 years.  I call him the miracle fish.  Once she collected snails from the backyard and put them in a jar with plastic wrap on top.  Somehow, they escaped - and contrary to their reputation, those suckers can move!  It took us a week to recover them, and I'm not even sure we found them all.  Another time my sister had the brilliant idea to keep the mouse that we caught in our house.  Yes, he escaped too.

We now have a hermit crab.  She got him for her classroom a couple years ago, but he lives here at home.  The other day after a spell of warm weather I made a horrible discovery.  Hermie was dead!  Or so I thought.  He didn't move for days and I was sure the heat killed him.  I lectured my sister on taking better care of her pets. Then I joked about eating soft shell crab.  But lo and behold, Hermie resurrected!  He was really molting, and not dead! 

Too late for the other hermit crab that my sister believed was 'dead.'  He was thrown away.  I tried not to guilt her too much on that one.