Houseplants and hermit crabs

I've not been able to grow any houseplants for almost 6 years, because of the lighting in the apartment I lived in, and no room anyway. Now I have houseplants! I'm back to growing cacti and succulents, spider plants and one huge palm tree. I've added quite a few others, since this house has actual big windows that make the rooms light and real sunlight can get it! My daughter keeps saying when I come in from shopping, "Not another houseplant!" But it looks so nice with all these plants in here, and I finally feel at home, something that I never felt in the apartment where I used to live. All of my grown life, I wanted to have an African Violet that actually bloomed. I've never had one before that had flowers, but I have one now! This is a major accomplishment for me.

The hermit crabs are another story. My daughter loves pets. We have had almost every kind of pet allowed in a city. I've been known as the 'rabbit killer' a very sad story not even I want to think about. And 'snake killer'. Who'd a thought that snakes would actually eat 7 goldfish and turn belly up and die? Snakes in the wild don't overeat, or there would be no snakes. Which isn't a bad idea anyway. I wasn't that fond of snakes.

I grow cats, that's it. I can handle cats, because they are a lot like me. They do their own thing, aren't so needy that they make you feel guilty. Though a hungry cat is an expert in guilt trips! I have Cassie and Starr. Starr, the tiny American Tabby. Cassie, the half Siamese, who snorts when she's mad, and her eyes turn red. Her eyes are normally blue. When she's not mad. She also looks like a badger, but that's something no one can explain. She doesn't overeat, she eats less than Starr, who is maybe a third her size. She still is huge. We three get along well. Cassie sleeps where ever she pleases, and Starr sleeps on my head at night.

I saw some hermit crabs one day at Wal Mart, and the next thing I know, I own six of these little things that kind of remind of spiders with an RV on their backs. Then my granddaughter, who had two of these, brought hers to me, so they could live with mine and have friends. I've found out, that's it really hard to tell if they're friends. I never see them move! Since they live in my computer room, my daughter said there is too much light ( I have houseplants in here too, see 1st paragraph!) so maybe they come out at night.

So one night I shut off the light, went and read a book and watched the TV for an hour. Then I came back and turned on the light. What do you know? They are alive and having a great time while I'm sleeping! Nice, huh? I thought I had pets, but what I really have is a decoration on a shelf in my computer room. A little scene with sand and shells, that contain hermits all coiled up inside, a little coconut house, that I have to clean and give water and food to. But they're not ever doing anything that I can actually see. Two of these creatures, aren't even coming out at night. My daughter said they are molting, that's why. And it could last for a month or more, before they shed their skin and appear in public again. I haven't killed them yet, although it is hard to tell that.

I'm weighing up the advantages here to explain to myself why I bought these things. They don't smell like mice. Their little home is not as big as a gerbil cage. They don't escape and turn up in the neighbor's bathroom like the hamster did in the apartment building we lived in. They don't sleep on my head (sometimes that does get a little annoying!) They don't overeat! They also, don't cost an arm and leg, like my daughters huge fish tank with Oscar and friends. Especially when their water went bad, and she had to treat it, add another filter and make a flying trip to the pet store to get the water tested. And now we are setting up another tank to get a bottom feeder and a huge catfish into their own tank, so Oscar has more room to grow. (a fish bigger than my hand needs to be bigger?) I suggested eating them, but that did not go over well! Maybe hermit crabs aren't such bad pets afterall.