Goodbye Crabs

Just days after posting the "Rachel's Pets" blog, I am sad to say that Toby and Arielle are no longer with us.

I won't go into detail recounting the tragic event but.....Okay I will: The crabs had been doing fine. Toby was so happy and active in his crabitat especially after I mixed some salt water into the sand. They love it when I do that and they love to dig and bury themselves.

Later that day I saw Arielle in his sand burrow with him and I thought they were finally getting along like they used to, always sleeping next to each other. The next day I saw Arielle's shell was empty. Hurray! Arielle decided to molt so she left her shell and is buried in the sand somewhere!

Meanwhile, Toby was huddled in the corner of the crabitat being very anti-social which isn't like him. Another day went by and I noticed part of Arielle was sticking out of the sand. Very abnormal for a molting crab. All of a sudden I got a very bad feeling. I knew something was wrong.

I picked up Toby's shell and huddled inside wasn't Toby but ARIELLE!! She had taken his shell! Which could only mean one thing...I dug through the sand and found Toby half eaten, limbs and parts strewn about. My beloved favorite crab! Arielle who's half his size had eaten him!

Immediately my anger and shock was in full swing. I couldn't believe my eyes or comprehend the violent nature that had been inflicted on my gentle crab. I grabbed Arielle who had betrayed my trust and ran down the stairs and opened the back door and threw her as far as I could into the grass. I think I found a scary little glimpse into the mother bear behavior that mothers exhibit when their child (an actual human being) is hurt or threatened. Because however far I tossed Arielle wasn't far enough and I still felt that she was a threat. So I ran out in the rain and picked her up and threw her even farther. I meant for her to land in the grass so that she'd be an outcast and have to fend for herself but my aim was off and she ended up falling over the fence and onto the basketball court. Realizing that the fall onto the hard AstroTurf probably killed her I then got a sense of what it's like to do harm to something when all you were doing was reacting to protect something you love. I can see how people end up in jail because of crimes of passion or feelings of needing to defend. Like in Friday Night Lights when Landry defends Tyra after the fact. Scary. I wasn't even thinking straight. I wasn't thinking about "animal abuse" or this is a crab I've loved and cared for and nursed through a difficult molt when I thought she was dead. All I could react to was this crab maliciously killed and ate Toby and she's evil and must be banished.

Thus it was.

Then for the next 48 hours I've had visions and nightmares in my sleep of Arielle showing up on my back door step as this huge enormous crab coming to get me. Last night I dreamed that she was continuously and spontaneously molting and getting larger and larger by the second so that she could pinch me and hurt me. Totally bizarre I know. I've felt so terrible about this whole thing! So tragic and awful and it all happened so fast. One day my crabs are happy and resting in their crabitat and the next day they're both dead.

Closure
This morning (after last night's bad dream) I decided to walk out to the basketball court to see if Arielle was still around. I didn't expect her to be alive given the cold elements of the weather and the rain. I searched around like I was on an Easter egg hunt looking for Toby's shell. I found it finally in a different place than it landed. It was empty. No crab inside. Relieved and sad I decided to bury the shell in remembrance of Toby...and Arielle. I buried it next to the other two grave sites of Sam and Sir Nigel in the back yard.

I'm done with crabs. I tossed the aquarium and all the dishes and sponges into the dumpster. I couldn't even give Toby a proper burial. Paul suggested I get some fish, but they're not the same as crabs. I think I'm going to stick to plants for a while.

Rest in peace my little friends.