Big Ooops!

I've mentioned before that Claire has 4 pet snails. She has had them for a couple of months now. I found them in the backyard while I was planting flowers. She keeps them in a bug viewer and we clean out their home every week. She loves these snails! She named them Willy, Billy, Nilly, and Lilly at first. Then one was named Unaccepted! When I asked why she said it was because she didn't like it because it always bothered Lilly. I don't really know how a snail bothers another snail, but ok! Then, she changed it to something nicer because it was being nice to Lilly. Their names seem to change all the time...except for Lilly. That's the little one and it's Claire's favorite.


Well, today was habitat cleaning day for the snails. We took them to the back porch and Claire put them on the porch. I went to clean out the container. At one point she was jumping up and down next to them. I told her to be careful, she wouldn't want to jump on one. Then, she went around to the front of the house with me and just left them on the porch. I had to send her back to watch them so they didn't crawl away. Finally, the container is clean (snails can be quite messy!) and we are ready to put their stuff back in it. Each week they get new leaves to eat and new dirt. Well, their stick was old and yucky so I threw it out. Claire wanted another stick. I say, ok, I'll go get one, and I take a step to go to the backyard. Crunch! I stepped on one of the snails!!!! I said, Oh my gosh! and she and Nathan said what? They hadn't heard it! I shoved them in the door and said go inside! I scraped the poor little guy off the porch and thought, what am I going to do now???

If they had been Nathan's snails I would have just said, Oh, no, I stepped on a snail. I'll find you another one. And he probably would have said, Ok. Can I see it? Did its guts squish out? But I wasn't dealing with Sir Doesn't care about a-lot. No, I was dealing with Princess cries a-lot, the sentimental maiden! I knew that she would just ball and ball if I told her about it, and she would never forget it and always be bothered by it. That's just how she is.

So.....I grab the shovel and head to my flower bed where I found them in the first place. I thought, "it's just rained, I found 4 without trying before, I should find one in no time!" WRONG! I dug and dug and couldn't find anything but earthworms! Not a snail to be found! I look back and the kids are watching me from the window. I think I'm busted, but no. They never asked what I was doing. I went looking all around the yard to see if there was somewhere else I could dig or if maybe one was crawling around somewhere. No luck! Then, the kids come to the back door again. Claire asked where her snails were. I said they were in the container. She said, "Are you sure you got Lilly?" I said yes and secretly prayed that Lilly was not the one I stepped on! Then I headed back to the flower bed one more time. I have a Mary and a St. Francis statue in that corner. I had to move Mary off the stone she was on so I could stand on it. When I did, I prayed, "Mary you are a mother. Please help me find a snail for Claire." Then, I think... I've got St. Francis here too, patron of all things animal related. So I say "St. Francis, pray for me!" I start digging again and less than a minute later I found a snail!! I was so happy! I was patting the statues on the heads saying, "Thank you! Thank you!"

I put the snail in the habitat with the others and so far, Claire hasn't said a word about it. The new guy was big, probably bigger than the one I stepped on, but they are snails and they all look alike anyway so I hope she doesn't notice. Thank God I didn't crush Lilly!! She was little and would have been very hard to replace!

One of the snails....

Thank you, Mary and St. Francis!!