Garfunkel

Garfunkel came to live with us for a time when h/is/er "parents" were out-of-country and they needed a snail sitter.  Upon arrival, Sigred immediately Facebooked Garfunkel's "Mom" (who'd left the country a few days before Garfunkel's Dad) to let her know s/he'd arrived safe and sound:

Garfunkel's "Dad" had given us instructions as to h/is/er's care and feeding.  He'd demonstrated how Garfunkel was to be peeled off the top of his container once a day and placed on a bed of lettuce.  Every 3 days or so, Garfunkel's home was to be cleaned; the old lettuce removed and h/is/er home to be rinsed out.  The whole thing seemed very simple and we assured Garfunkel's "Dad" all would be well.

"It's the peeling h/im/er off the top of his box.  I feel like I'm going to rip h/im/er out of h/is/er shell!" Sigred appealed to Fred to take over this chore. 

With great reluctance Fred peeled Garfunkel the next day.  He too had serious problems with the whole procedure.  Lying in bed that afternoon for their second cozy of the day, Fred suggested instead of peeling Garfunkel from the top of h/is/er box and bringing h/im/er down to h/is/er lettuce, that they simply flip the box over, thus bringing the lettuce to Garfunkel.

"I've only got one problem with that" Sigred told him.  "If the lid of the box is on the bottom, will it be tighter and more air proof?  I'd feel really awful if Garfunkel suffocated!"

Fred laughed and assured Sigred it'd be OK.

For a couple of days Sigred did try turning Garfunkel's box over and then a couple of hours later, when Garfunkel wasn't holding on so tight, she'd pick h/im/er up, turn the box right side up and once again lay Garfunkel on h/is/er bed of lettuce.  One morning however, Garfunkel wasn't in his usual place stuck to the roof.  Once again Sigred worried he was ill but Garfunkel proved her wrong by being quite active that day.  S/he climbed to the top of h/is/er box later in the morning and then back to the bottom, across the length of the bottom and back up to the top all within the daylight hours. 

"I think Garfunkel's finally settling in" Sigred said to Fred.  "S/he seems to be exploring."  Fred laughed about Sigred's potential story titled:  "Garfukel the Hyperactive Snail".

As it turned out Sigred & Fred figured Garfunkel was just testing different positions looking to find the perfect one where s/he wasn't bothered by the large creatures flipping h/is/er box around.  This position proved to be stuck, not to the top where we could turn h/is/er box over, not to the bottom where h/is/er lettuce was, but to the side where s/he thwarted all box turning and it was required to once again pull h/im/er off in order to get h/im/er down to the feed trough.

"Won't s/he just go down down when s/he's hungry?" Fred pondered out loud as Sigred was fussing. 

"Well, you'd think so" Sigred answered "but our instructions were to bring h/im/er to h/is/er lettuce once a day."

Still another day Sigred, grinning a Cheshire grin, commented to Fred:  "Do you think the cool weather is making Garfunkel sluggish?"

Fred refused to reply until Sigred whined something out of him and then he just barely acknowledged that he "got" the pun.

Sigred tried not to be disappointed.

In the End, Garfunkel became part of Sigred & Fred's lives.  They got used to h/is/er comings & goings and were confident s/he'd climb to h/is/her food when required.  Too soon, Garfunkel's "Mom" came back and whisked h/im/er away from their lives.  It was hard for Sigred not to imagine a tiny, wee, high pitched voice perhaps saying "Bye bye.  Bye bye.  Bye bye." as Garfunkel and h/is/er box were carried out the door.

Princess however, was relieved. 

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Googling Ecuador Snails Sigred came up with the following site: Bram's Snail Site