never trust a hermit crab...

Corinn & Gabby picked up hermit crabs at the beach souvenir shop with their spending money...they'd already grown used to handling them - we find tons at the beach every year...of course, those hermit crabs are tiny (well, mostly - we've found some pretty big ones on the sound side)...there's really no worries when it comes to watching out for their claws...

at first, it didn't appear we had to watch out for the store-bought kind either...they'd climb around in our hands & didn't seem to be too concerned with our fingers...for the first week or so, they never tried to do any pinching

but then one evening last week, i heard a blood curdling scream come from the kitchen! Corinn had been handling Sally (her hermit crab...Gabby's is named Spikey - he's pictured below) & apparently Sally had had enuff...she'd clamped that big claw onto a pinch of Corinn's palm skin & would NOT let go!

i'm talking the soft fleshy part too...right in the middle of her palm! i pried the crab's claw open, careful not to rip Corinn's skin or harm the crab...as soon as she was loose, she sighed deeply...i think it scared her more than anything else...but i bet that sucker hurt too!

Curtis was so pissed...he came running into the room & looked as though he was ready to throw the hermit crab to the floor & stomp it...i bet if it had been him releasing Corinn from the crab's grasp instead of me, Sally would be one claw short this week ~lol~

needless to say, we're a lot more careful about how we handle these critters...especially Corinn - she doesn't let those pinchers anywhere near her skin any more!