Lisa the Crab

At Sea Life Park last week, the counselors allowed my darling daughter to bring home a hermit crab from their tide pool adventure. I don't know what sucker was working that day, but it's wearing me out now. SO, Eve brings this itsy baby crab back to camp and then let another girl take it home that day. I prayed that kid would keep it, but she didn't...she brought it back to Eve the next day...much to my horror. This weekend we made it a nice little home because Eve thought the water bottle was insufficient for long term living...apparently she has forgotten pets aren't long term here. To date the crab is still living, but we had an awfully close call tonight.
When we got home tonight Lisa's water was gross...stinky, nasty, gross. Lucky for us, we live at the ocean so Eve and I took the crab and her shells out and I placed them all on a paper plate, my first mistake. Eve and I walked down to the water for fresh sand and salt water and got sidetracked by the beauty of the beach. It was low tide and we walked our very nearly deserted stretch of sand for about 15-20 minutes, my second mistake. Upon coming back inside, Lisa was not still on the paper plate. I had not anticipated this...b/c I should not be caring for living, breathing things. We searched all around and no crab. Eve wasn't hysterical, but clearly upset (and it was clearly my fault...although in this case it really was...it was sort of a dumb ass move on my part). She kept searching while I started dinner and found the crab on the floor. Lisa had plummeted off the kitchen island onto the tile floor. Her shell fell off and she was crawling around minus it, which was quite a disturbing site. We placed her and her shell back inside the bowl and within minutes she was miraculously back in her shell...no idea how that happened because we had looked away. All seems well for now, maybe she will make it to day #8.