Everybody knows that snails don’t run.
But no one told Sam.
Sam arrived in our household along with Soda, a colourful betta fish we picked up from the local pet shop as replacement for Ollie. (Ollie succumbed to fishy old age and was transitioned ceremoniously into compost in the garden, under the grand epitaph: “Here Lies A Good Fish”.)
The pet-store guy threw Sam, a finger-nail-sized “mystery snail, in for free. Selecting companions for betta fish can be a bit tricky: otherwise known as Siamese fighting fish, they aren’t known for their affability. But betta fish aren’t threatened by snails, we were assured. Plus, snails keep the water clean.
All seemed well, at first. Soda simply ignored the tiny striped mollusk meandering around his space. The only thing he attacked was his food. Until the night he drove Sam clean out of the bowl. Read the rest of this entry »