May 9, 2008

Our New Pets

Mia has an obsession with snails. And worms, and pill bugs, and sometimes beetles. But not grubs ("grumps", as she calls them), and not spiders (so she is related to me after all). And luckily for her, our yard is filled with snails, since I'm too afraid to use pesticides. Luckily for me, "caring" for the snails and worms and assorted bugs occupies her and Sam for hours while I do yard work, which I have plenty of since I'm also too afraid to use herbicides.

One thing Mia is not afraid of is snail poop, which she dutifully checks for and cleans up on a regular basis. Did you know that snails produce an alarming quantity of poop? This is something we are learning from the near constant updates from our little "Snail Whisperer." We also learned from last summer that snail slime does not wash off little hands with soap and water, and that if you leave 10-15 snails in a sealed, unventilated Tupperware container in the sun for a few days or maybe weeks, they become a crusty, stinky, dried up mess. Lessons learned. Things are going much better this year, and besides a few escapees, which we posted snail sized "LOST" fliers for to no avail, all snails appear to be happy and healthy. I think Mia is trying to prove to us that she is capable of caring for a much bigger pet, like a dog, or an elephant. In the meantime, I just keep telling her go check for snail poop.


2 comments:

Neva said...

Make sure she knows that if the snails get out of line she can always grab the salt shaker.

LAURA said...

That's awesome they'll keep themselves occupied that long with snails and such, maybe I need to implant some snails into our new backyard in NM.