Snails

I stop a lot when I walk my dog Tequila. Not so much because Tequila stops, although that happens, but also because I toss wriggling earthworms off the sidewalk and into the grass. I'm sure the birds aren't happy, but I like to think the earthworms live to wriggle another day. I feel the same way about snails. I don't find them as often, but when I do, I pluck them up and scoot them out of danger. When Birdie and Daisy were preschoolers, earthworms, including one named Stacy, lived in a jar on our kitchen table. That worked until we ate spaghetti for dinner. Not a pretty picture, so we turned them loose in an outdoor planter. Birdie sobbed thinking the birds would get them. I told her not to worry as our earthworms were smart. The girls grew older and we graduated to other pets, including four snails kept in a glass bowl on the kitchen table. The kitchen table has always been popular for housing. I found the snails while walking at Creve Coeur Park. That was the easy part. I had a harder time figuring out how to keep them alive. I googled "snails" and recipes for escargot popped up, followed by ways to kill snails plaguing gardens. It took a lot of misfired searches before I discovered how to care for them. But I did. Dotted with flecks of different nail polish, Sunny, Mr. Pink, Royal and Ocean lived good lives in the kitchen. Birdie and Daisy would let them crawl on their fingers like moving rings. Although, I'm not sure my two teenagers would do that now. And we all discovered that snails aren't timid and will move really fast when you set them on the kitchen counter and forget to watch them. After several years, Royal and Ocean died. I turned Mr. Pink and Sunny loose in the backyard and told them to watch out for birds. Chances are, that day, the birds were happy. I hadn't thought about the pet snails for a long time Then I stumbled across a children's book called The Snail's Spell by Joanne Ryder. I am glad someone else liked snails enough to write about them. Ryder's book was even recognized by the New York Academy of Sciences as an Outstanding Science Book For Young Children. I wish I'd had her book before I googled and accidentally found out how to cook and kill the little critters. I plan to spend more time browsing through kid books. If I ever find a porcupine, I'll need to know how to raise him or her or at least how to remove sharp needles from my nose.