Back when Eli was five he was given the mightily responsible task of caring for the neighbor's hermit crabs while they were on vacation. I was filled with dread because when I was about five we sent our fish off to a sitter and they came back dead. Floating. I figured that it must be harder to kill a hermit crab, and if we did, it might go unnoticed for a while anyway and we could escape the blame. So they came over. And the two boys spent really quite a bit of time staring into the cage and watching them do just about nothing. Every now and then a crab would flash a bit of leg, then close back up into it's shell.
By dinnertime, it looked like the honeymoon was over. Hermit crabs are not exciting pets. The boys seemed to have completely forgotten our houseguests- which was fine, it's not like they are demanding pets either. But several hours later, when I thought the boys were in the tub, I met two naked dripping boys tiptoeing down the stairs. I asked where they were going, and Eli said, "We are off to observe the nocturnal habits of the hermit crabs!" Great, but why naked?
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