New Pets

Friendly Snails

Orpheus is adept at finding snails in Pop's garden. On Sunday, he found a snail crawling up a bottle of blue glitter glue that he had left in the yard when it rained. He lured it off of the glitter with a few dry leaves and before you know it the two of us were watching it travel across a path of leaves we created on the picnic table.

Later, Orpheus thought it might be hungry, and we looked on-line to find out what snails like to eat. We fed it baby carrots, strawberries and grape tomatoes. We also learned that snails like company, so Orpheus set about finding a friend for it. It was around this point that Orpheus started calling it his "pet snail" - "pet snails" once he found it a friend.

When he asked his mom, Calliope, if he could keep the snails, she made the mistake of saying, "It's Pop's house. Ask him." She was sure that Pop would say no. But he didn't and now there are 2 snails living at Clan Headquarters. Grandma, naturally, had the perfect plastic tank for it in the attic. (Teachers!)

It has been decided that the snails will be released back into the wild when Orpheus goes to spend the summer with his dad on Monday.

Here's what we learned about snails from the web and our own observation.

	Some snails have been known to live up to 15 years.
	Snails usually travel in irregular paths, often traveling in a circle. (We witnessed this.)
	A snail can crawl upside down. (Ditto!)
	Snails are nocturnal animals which means they are more active at night.
	Garden Snails mainly eat garden plants and vegetables.
	Garden snails hibernate during the winter and live on their stored fat.
	Garden snails can survive a fall from the height of a five year old's outstretched hand. (We learned this first hand, too.)
	The garden snail is cooked and eaten as a delicacy called escargot. May 24th is National Escargot Day

Tasty Snails.... he he he