My Twins' First Pets
Two days ago, my four-year-old twin boys became the proud owners of their first pets. Snappy and Crabby are the highly unoriginal monikers assigned to two hermit crabs, who are now residing in a ten-gallon tank in their bedroom. (Technically, these aren’t the boys’ first pets—we also have two cats—but our feline friends are both eighteen years old and have been around a lot longer than the twins. The crabs, however, are the first animals the boys have acquired themselves.)
My number-one criterion in getting a pet for them was that it be easy to care for. After all, my boys are only four, and I knew that the lion’s share of the work would fall on my husband and me. According to Susan E. Davis on DrSpock.com, “Three- to five-year-olds are often very enamored of pets and see them as special friends that are endowed with human qualities. . . . Preschoolers can also begin to understand the importance of being gentle and quiet around animals, as well as patting appropriately and not pulling on ears, legs, or tails.” After many years of cat ownership—entailing numerous vet visits, scooping poop, treating fleas, and so on—I was really ready to give up the “pet thing” altogether. In fact, my husband and I have agreed that after the cats go up to kitty heaven, we are done with all furry, four-legged friends. But the twins kept begging us to visit the pet store, and one of the employees gave me a really good sales pitch about how easy it is to care for crabs, so we were literally “hooked.” And I mean that in all seriousness.
When we got home with the crabs, I picked one up, expecting him to crawl cutely all over my hands like the one at the pet store did with the employee. Instead, he grabbed the skin on the palm of my hand with his pincer and held on tight. Owwwwww! If you’ve never been pinched by a hermit crab, I don’t recommend the experience. Fortunately, I refrained from flinging the little guy across the room, and he eventually loosened his grip. We soon discovered, however, that crabs normally reserve their feistiness for nighttime. They sleep all day, and then race around their aquarium at night, pushing over shells and rocks that we had neatly displayed on the sand. I must say that their decorating talents leave much to be desired! They also woke up one of my sons by all their activity. He came into our bedroom last night and announced, “The crabs are keeping me awake!”
So, we’ll see how things go in our “craboratory” in the next few days, weeks and months. Will they become beloved family members…or live up to their names of being “snappy” and “crabby”?
Technorati Tags:
pets, preschoolers, crabs, hermit crabs, animals
My number-one criterion in getting a pet for them was that it be easy to care for. After all, my boys are only four, and I knew that the lion’s share of the work would fall on my husband and me. According to Susan E. Davis on DrSpock.com, “Three- to five-year-olds are often very enamored of pets and see them as special friends that are endowed with human qualities. . . . Preschoolers can also begin to understand the importance of being gentle and quiet around animals, as well as patting appropriately and not pulling on ears, legs, or tails.” After many years of cat ownership—entailing numerous vet visits, scooping poop, treating fleas, and so on—I was really ready to give up the “pet thing” altogether. In fact, my husband and I have agreed that after the cats go up to kitty heaven, we are done with all furry, four-legged friends. But the twins kept begging us to visit the pet store, and one of the employees gave me a really good sales pitch about how easy it is to care for crabs, so we were literally “hooked.” And I mean that in all seriousness.
When we got home with the crabs, I picked one up, expecting him to crawl cutely all over my hands like the one at the pet store did with the employee. Instead, he grabbed the skin on the palm of my hand with his pincer and held on tight. Owwwwww! If you’ve never been pinched by a hermit crab, I don’t recommend the experience. Fortunately, I refrained from flinging the little guy across the room, and he eventually loosened his grip. We soon discovered, however, that crabs normally reserve their feistiness for nighttime. They sleep all day, and then race around their aquarium at night, pushing over shells and rocks that we had neatly displayed on the sand. I must say that their decorating talents leave much to be desired! They also woke up one of my sons by all their activity. He came into our bedroom last night and announced, “The crabs are keeping me awake!”
So, we’ll see how things go in our “craboratory” in the next few days, weeks and months. Will they become beloved family members…or live up to their names of being “snappy” and “crabby”?
Technorati Tags:
pets, preschoolers, crabs, hermit crabs, animals
Labels: animals, crabs, hermit crabs, pets, preschoolers
posted by Susan M. Heim at 1:25 PM
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