It was bound to happen. From the moment the hermit crabs came in to our lives, we had prepped the kids for their eventual demise. Well, today it finally happened.
After returning home from a birthday party at the local park this afternoon, E looked in the hermit crab box and exclaimed, "What happened to Car?" I glanced in the box and to my horror discovered a poor dismembered crab. All but one of his legs and claws were ripped off. Oh, oh, oh...not good. I pulled the little guy out and tried to shoo the kids away from the grisly site. Sure enough, Car was dead, or at least not alive enough to respond to me. I set him down and set about cleaning the cage. Grrr, I was so irritated at the other crab, Rosie, for doing such a horrible thing. I've since learned that if you don't have other shells in the habitat for the crabs to switch into, they will sometime fight each other and try to pull the other crab out of it's occupied shell.
Of course, this entire time the kids are hovering over my shoulder asking what happened. I made up some line about Car not feeling well so his legs fell off. That should give them nightmares the next time the have a tummy ache, right?! We all said goodbye to the sad little crab and put him in the garbage-no ceremony here, but no one seemed to mind. E was still a bit suspicious about what actually caused Car's death, but didn't push it in front of H. Instead, in words beyond her years, stated, "I know what really happened to Car. God decided it was his time to go to heaven." I don't think I could have said it better myself.
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