Well, today was the day. Our little Twitch has left the Earth. I knew something was up because each time I would move his little hut he would not move. Normally when the hut is just touched, little Twitchy would get, well, twitchy! Early this afternoon, he seemed really slow and lethargic. By dinner time he was gone. I left the disposal up to the man of the house. He and boy #2 walked outside and disposed of Twitch. It seemed that the boy was going to be fine with it.
Well, he wasn’t. I watched out the window and saw him walk back to the house very slowly, taking each step very deliberately. His blond head was hanging down. My heart ached for him! When he came into the house he really started to cry and had the biggest tears rolling down his cheeks. He wondered out loud if it was something we did that ended Twitch’s life. I assured him that we took excellent care of Twitch and what a lucky crayfish he was to have the boy for his keeper. Thanks to me, he dined on worms and had a fresh Tupperware container of water every day or so. What more could a crayfish ask for? My boy was sad for the rest of the night and was unusually silent during dinner. He is still sniffling. I told him I thought it was a rule somewhere that states that whenever a nine year old boy has a crayfish that dies, that little boy gets to go out for ice cream. So off we go to our favorite ice cream place and hopefully that will help dry his tears. I know it will make me feel better!
1 Comment
June 5, 2009 at 3:13 PM
There must of been something wrong with me when I was his age. We had a cabin up on Castle Rock Lake just north of the Wisconsin Dells. We used to catch crayfish under this small bridge (on highway Z for anyone familiar) in the rocks submerged in the water. We used a worm on a fishing line to lure them out and then grab them. Once my friends and I each had a crayfish we went up on the bridge and put each one on the center line of the road. Whoever had the crayfish that made it back off the road the fastest was the winner and that crayfish got to go back in the water, the losers were used for bait when we went fishing. The other way a crayfish got to go back in the water was if he survived the longest without getting ran over (after the others had been smooshed), he got to go back in the water then too. Between getting hit by a car or used for bait, the crayfish survival rate was about 20%. Oh those were fun days……….