Meme Monday – Snaily Edition

Again, I am using a cartoon instead of a meme. Is that wrong of me? I don’t know.

When I was 9 or 10, I was playing outside on the lawn, when I stepped on something that went kind of crunch. I didn’t step hard, but hard enough to hear and feel it before pulling my foot back. My brother said that it was probably a snail, and that I had cracked its shell. I was horrified, and went inside to ask my mom what happens when you step on a snail and crack their shell. She said she thought they died. Wrong answer. I was a sensitive, tender hearted child, and I was horrified to think that I had killed this snail, that it would have a slow, agonizing death. So, crying, I looked and looked for that little snail. It was getting dark, and honestly, I don’t know what I thought I could do for it if I found it. I think mostly I just wanted to check it and see how bad it was, see if I thought it had any chance of survival. I never found it. The whole experience was somewhat traumatic, and I think probably was also for Richard (who could not have cared less for the snail but felt bad for me and tried to help me find it) and my mom (who regretted telling me that the snail was likely not long for this world.)

When Maya was a little girl, about 4, she loved snails. She still loves snails. We have a very small patio back yard, and at one point we had a little lawn back there, and Maya would find snails…she would hold them, put them on her arm or leg and let them slime around. (I hesitate to say ‘crawl’, since they don’t have legs, so I’m using slime as a verb, as it seems right to me.). It was disgusting, but it made her SO HAPPY, so I just let her be.

One morning recently, Mulder and I were out on our walk, and happened upon this snail party. I had to take a picture and send it to Maya, and she texted back a heart emoji and ‘Snaily!” Which is what she always named her snails.

Would you like to see a picture or two of 4 year old Maya letting snails crawl on her? Of course you would. Be thankful I didn’t take a picture the time I went in the yard and found her with one on her face. So gross.

She’s just holding Snaily in this photo, not so disturbing. Cute kid, if I do say so myself.

This one is a few months later…she has lost a few teeth, and she has her first purse, which for some reason she REALLY wanted. It was on sale so I said OK. I don’t think she ever took it anywhere, she mostly just had it around the house. I don’t THINK she ever put snails in it, but who knows. Actually, now that I think about it, when she started getting an allowance she may have put money in it.

One day, Ted got free tickets to go to a baseball game in Oakland. He had to work and could not go, but I decided that Maya and I would go. We would get on BART, since it is right across from our house, and there is a stop at the ball park, so pretty convenient. Maya didn’t really want to go, she wanted to stay home and play with her snail. She had a little plastic pet carrier…I don’t remember what poor animal may have lived in it at one point, but it was empty. So I told her she could put Snaily in there with some leaves and grass, and we would bring it with us. That worked. I must tell you, that snail acted VERY curious…stretching its neck up and looking around on the BART train, and again at the ball park. The people around us were very nice about it and thought she was pretty cute. Of course, she was.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I don’t see many, if any, snails at that ivy lately, that likely they have been poisoned. She’s an adult now, but still sensitive. Me too sometimes, though I will admit to having eaten escargot a few times…

Have you or your kids had any strange pets?