Introducing Tough Jumbo

My friend Wendy has a rad Critter Blog where she writes mini-essays about interesting animals that are educational and fun. One of my favorite posts discusses something called a mammalian penis bone.

She recently posted about hermit crabs, and it made me want one. You may be thinking, "Big deal! This is not worthy of a blog post!" Please understand that I have a terrible problem with pet anxiety. Ever since the "Jonas and Monas" fiasco where we had to get rid of our beautiful Siamese cats because of their unwillingness to stay inside, I have been reluctant to own animals. I once read a horoscope/Chinese numerology/birth number thing about myself that said I am extremely compassionate towards animals, and sometimes care more about them than humans. This is really true! I worry a lot about the pets that I bring into my home! No wonder I'm a vegetarian.

We do have a fish, but he's very elderly. The lifespan of betta fish is supposed to be a year, and most of them are already 6 months old when they get to the pet store. We got Mr. Fidget from Walmart (yes, I admit that I do shop there occasionally) in August of 2004, so he's got to be well over 2 years old by now. Isaac kisses Fidget goodbye in the mornings, so when he passes on to the great fish bowl in the sky, it will be traumatic. I am frankly very worried, because Mr. F. has not eaten anything for the past 6 days. He lets his food chunks float on the surface of his water until they dissolve.

Perhaps another pet can ease the inevitable pain of Fidget's departure?

So we decided to get a crab. I called several stores looking for crabs, and nobody had any. But today Page successfully found a pet store that stocked crabs, and she brought the little guy home. We put him in a plastic storage container (we'll get a real tank soon), and realized that she didn't get enough gravel, so we added some plastic beads. The only thing I don't like so far is that his food is very, very stinky. Ewww. But he's a cute little bugger! He's got these weird eyes and reminds me of Gary from SpongeBob.

Isaac named him "Tough Jumbo", which I think is a really cool name. Isaac has a knack for animal names. He loves Tough Jumbo already, and has been sitting next to the container for the past 2 hours. Occasionally, he yells "Hey MOM! He moved his leg! Quick, come see!"

I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow and Isaac will be taking Tough Jumbo to his grandma's house for the weekend. I'm sure this is the beginning of a wonderful boy-crab relationship.