So-long, Sleeper!

My boys have wanted a pet since...well, forever. Chris and Randi wanted pets, too, and mean mom that I am, they never got one. (I don't need ONE MORE thing to have to worry about or take care of!) Well, Randi had a couple of fish at one point, if that counts...

So, anyway, Sam finally got a pet in 2008 for his 8th birthday -- a hermit crab! He was THRILLED!



Eewwwww....

May, 2008 -- Sam getting the crab cage
for his birthday. We went that night and
picked out a crab for the 'lonely cage.'

They had some in his classroom at school, a couple of his friends them, and he felt like he knew all about them. And he would finally have a 'pet!' I had heard from friends that they were easy to take care of, quiet, didn't smell up the place, and they only live about a year (my favorite part -- sorry, I'm the mean mom, remember?). We were so excited to have found a pet solution, that we let Grayson get one that night, too!

Sam named his crab Sleeper, because he rarely came out of his shell. Grayson named his Reverend of Joy, because of his coloring(?) Whatever...

They were relatively easy to care for, as you just spray them with special 'crab water' every couple of days, and make sure they have enough food in their cage. Sam generally took care of them, and he was great at remembering, and making sure they were fed and "watered." Good thing, because the novelty wore off within about two weeks for Grayson. (Uh, yeah...let's puh-lease get a dog.)

Reverend ended up dying early in 2010, and Sam buried him in our back yard, under the deck. And alas, when I got home from some meetings yesterday, Sam told me that Sleeper had died. Both of them are buried together under the deck now, and Sam has little sticks marking their graves. And...he put a little faucet/tube thing on the end of one of them, so that when it rains, some water will drip down under the dirt to them "just in case they still need to stay wet..."



Two crab graves under the deck

Sad day...good-bye, Sleeper. You lasted almost two YEARS longer than we thought you would.

Sam will miss you.