The new family pet

R.E. Dad's clan finally took the plunge and obtained our first post-child family pet. 'His' name is "Hermie" and he's an extremely camera shy hermit crab.  The weekend ritual of casually browsing local pet stores in the name of free entertainment has been interrupted.  Now our weekend jaunts to Petsmart will have Hermie's well being in mind.  In fact, the first order of business this upcoming weekend will be to shop for a decent "crib" for little Hermie as this tiny plastic container is substandard....I don't want to be labeled a "slumlord."

If anyone is to blame for our new addition, I suppose that person would be the guy who is typing this post.  Yep, after being the steady "NO" man for months with reference to any kind of pet adoption from fish to ferret (illegal in California by the way - no, not fish, ferret), I became swept up in the moment.

The family (including my Mom) spent part of our Mother's Day attending the revitalized Strawberry Festival at the Placer County Fairgrounds in Roseville. So after eating a wonderful pancake breakfast complete with strawberries, whipped cream and sausage, we ventured over to the ride and game area of the festival.

After watching the kids go on a few rides, we decided to check-out the ping pong ball toss which was well shaded on a warm sunny morning.   For $5, you could get 30 or so balls and toss them towards about 15 rows of small fish bowls. The prize for one ball in a bowl was one small hermit crab. Two balls in a bowl (that doesn't sound good, sorry) was a medium hermit crab. Three balls in a bowl meant a muy grande hermit crab.  I thought why not....$5 and the kiddos could have at it.

I was right...the kiddos did have at it throwing ping pong balls all over Northern California but clearly had next to no chance of scoring a hole-in-one about the same odds as a snowman winning a surfing competition.   Good?  Yes, but R.E. Dad couldn't help himself and tried a tad too hard to "win."  Uh oh, I did make one in and yadda yadda yadda, we now are proud owners of a little hermit crab in a blue shell.   The triplets were thrilled!  Mom MD and I were stuck.

On our way out of the festival an older couple with their grown son stopped us and asked "where did you get the hermit crab?"  After we told them about the ping pong toss game, they mentioned that they bought a hermit crab for their son when he was a young boy, and have had the same hermit crab for 32 years!

Later in the evening after the kids had gone to bed I asked Mom MD "what the heck was that couple talking about, no way could they have had  a hermit crab for 32 years......I wasn't thinking that this would be such a long term commitment."   She said not to worry "we'll probably screw-up and kill the crab long before then."   I wish no ill-will on Hermie.  I'm glad the kiddos have their first pet.