The Snail

Julia loves gardening and could spend hours outside digging in the dirt and watering the plants (too bad she tends to the same area-- about 2 square feet--every time we're outside or else I wouldn't need to do any yardwork myself). Daddy got a small lemon tree as a present for doing well on his exams last semester, and it is her current favorite plant in the yard. The caterpillars helping themselves to the lemon tree's leaves were particularly interesting for awhile. But the other day Julia was tending her little garden as usual and found a treasure....A SNAIL complete with a nifty shell. Okay, so the shell was dull brown and the snail was actually decaying inside of it, but to Julia, this was an incredible treasure!

She spent the longest time examining the decaying contents (which she then wanted me to clean out), and then she proceeded to show it around the yard. I think she was letting it choose a new place to live. She took it to each corner of the yard (and also the patio, the BBQ grill, and a laundry basket lying out by the clothesline) and in what I imagine was her best realtor's voice, gave the sales pitch on the perks of the various locations. He chose the BBQ grill at first, but apparently gave up that lease in favor of better view from the retaining wall.For almost two weeks, Julia would wake up each morning and sit at the kitchen table for breakfast while staring longingly out the window and begging me to let her go out and see her snail (I drew the line at having him as an indoor pet). It was such a woeful day when she dropped him on the patio and the shell was crushed beyond recognition. So woeful in fact that we spent the next half hour scouring the backyard for another. Amazingly, we found a second snail (also just a body decaying inside a fragile shell). Fortunately, by the time that one met his maker, the novelty had finally worn off.