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Feb 24, 2003 Catchy title. This is a short article about all my various pets and of coarse featuring a snail. We have had a collection of many different pets. Most of your ordinary household pets. They can all be very entertaining at times. The dog and cats can also be a real pain in the behind. All my pets are insane and immature babies especially at feeding time. You come home from work and the Dog, Bailey is waiting at the steps and must be petted and you have to say hello at least 3 times. Of coarse the cats are also waiting. It must be lunchtime because that is very important. We have 4 cats and they could all be waiting. You can try to take your shoes off and go to the bathroom but there is a meowing and barking mob. Best to feed them first because they have a one-track mind. They can all be feed together with no fights but Bailey will watch as the cats eat his food. Bailey is the second dumbest dog in the world. I give him this credit because somewhere there must be a dumber dog. But he is loyal and faithful to me. He is always 2 steps behind me. He is my shadow. The only room he will not follow me into is the bathroom because he might get a bath. Bailey barks at us everyday when we come home. I think that in 8 hours he may have forgotten us. Barking is his only trick. If I play with the cats and ignore him, I may wake up with a steaming surprise on the carpet. I am comforted by the fact that Ozzi Osborn has the same problem. But I do love him and would be heart broken if something ever happened to him. Now my cats are all psychologically unbalanced. Each in their own unique way. Pets reflect their owners so I know they are all crazy. We have a pet door. You go out you come in. Lucy can go out but not in. She will spend hours looking through the back doors and wait to be let back into the house. Mischief is the dream kid in our pet family. He answers to his name and he will come form anywhere in the house or yard. He does not answer to things like kitty, just his name. We play fetch with a paper ball. The paper ball scares Baily. The fetch game has rules. I sit on the bed and must throw the paper ball into the hallway. If it lands in the bedroom, I have to pick it up. In the hallway Mischief will bat and chase it. Then pick it up and jump on the bed and give the ball to me. The game can last 20 throws before he forgets to come back. Next on the pet list are the fish and this is leading up to the snails. We built a pond and water falls in the back yard. It was very nice but of course you need fish for entertainment. So we bought four gold fish. They seemed to survive in Canada in a pond out doors. Every few weeks we got a few more different fish and some snails. 3 were yellow snails and one was a black stripped apple snail. Tossed them in with the fish. Fed the fish but the snails seemed OK with whatever was in the pond. Where I live it gets damn cold. The pond is frozen or too cold about 8 months. So we bought two 40-gallon tanks and everybody moves in doors for the winter. After 2 ½ years there have been many fish tragedies. We still have 1 of the original gold fish named Spot. Spot used to be a fat fantail goldfish, he was white and had a bright orange Spot on his head, but somewhere in the tank, he lost his spot. We also have 1 yellow snail and the apple snail and this what I have learned. The snails seemed OK and looked like they ate nothing or cleaned up after the fish. After a few weeks we decided to get plants for the aquarium. Got $50.00 of nice pretty plants for the fish to play and hide in. After a day the plants seemed to have some damage and were disappearing. It took 2 days for the snails to eat $50.00 of plants all the way to the stem. Next trip to the pet store we got the ugly mean looking plants. This slowed down the small yellow snail but the big apple snail finished them in a week. Next trip to the pet store we bought plastic plants. Snails are not slow. The apple snail is about the size of my fist and ugly when sticking out of his shell. He can move his body out of his shell a bit and float or sink in the tank. He can crawl about 2 feet a minute along the glass. He will eat anything. If a fish dies he is after it. I had a crawfish and it sheds its shell. The snail would eat the hard shell and pinchers. I started to put lettuce in the tank to feed him. The lettuce floats around the tank and snails have to hunt for it. 30 seconds after you drop the lettuce he starting to search for it. We have a thermometer that has come un-stuck and floats around the tank. The snail will float up and attach himself to the floating thermometer. Now the race is on as the lettuce and the snail go bobbing around the tank. This is great entertainment that last for ½ hour or more. Snails are smarter then you think! ------------ Edwin Richter lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Computer Technical Support agent. Free time is spent surfing the internet. Runs BestFreeTraffic.com as a hobby. Loves to do at home simple science experiments. Email Edwin: warfque@shaw.ca Comment on this column in the forum. ------------- |
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