Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock
If you need a day-care for your pet hermit crabs, contact me. The Hermit Crab Palace will take care of your wee ones while you’re at work so they don’t get lonely.
These days, doggy day-cares are just getting busier and busier. People drop off their pooches at these enterprising businesses, where they’re fed appropriately, loved by humans and have companionship. Owners tell the papers, their pampered puppies (of all ages) are happy and even a bit tired when they’re picked up. They don’t run their masters and mistresses ragged from pent-up loneliness.
I can do that for your cute crabs. In fact, it’s even better than four-footed mammal care. You bring those moving shells to me, and I take them with me so they’re never at a loss for human contact. I have a big terrarium at work, similar to the one at home. They ride in the front seat of my luxury car (hey, it’s a Prizm, but what do the crustaceans know from Mercedes?) secure in a hardwood-fiber box that once held expensive, Italian shoes. What, Nike’s not a hand-tooled, grass-fed leather foot covering out of Tuscany?
Unlike dogs, Hermit Crab Palace does not terminate contracts based on ill behavior. Should one crab take on another, the worst that can happen is the loss of a leg that will regenerate within weeks.
One bonus is that I do keep for their comfort and entertainment a variety of sanitized shells of many sizes and shapes. So if your beloved Hermes decides to molt and need a bigger shell, he’s welcome to one of mine. I don’t mind, as of course being his nature he’ll leave his old one. And the next day if he or a companion crab wants it back, it’ll be right there. I will have taken care to give it a good soapy rinsing to keep herpes from Hermes.
Hermit Crab Palace is a reasonable $20 a day, $15 a half-day, including food and strong indirect light while well-ventilated in room temperature to prevent either hibernation in winter or boiling in summer. -30-
