Miss Four's attention span continues at snail's pace
To most gardeners, snails are the arch-enemy.
Squash 'em, bait 'em, drown 'em in beer but, whatever you do, don't let them anywhere near your prized veges.
In our vege patch, we grow lettuces for the sole purpose of feeding snails.
Several weeks ago, after a friend
brought an ice-cream container of snails to kindy, Miss Four decided she wanted to keep some of the slimy molluscs as pets.
So when she got home she started filling up her own ice-cream container with as many as she could muster. After narrowing it down to four favourites, she dutifully collected a handful of juicy lettuce leaves from the garden and bedded them in.
"How cute," I thought. "Her first pets."
And much cheaper and lower maintenance than a dog, which she had previously made noises about.
For the first 48 hours, she was captivated. She got them out and exercised them, giggling as they slithered over her arms and legs, and provided them with nutritious meals, stripping the lettuces bare.
But, by Day 3, her interest was waning.
And by Day 4 she had forgotten they existed - until I said I was going to release them back into the wild.
"Nooooo," she wailed. "Don't put them back. I want to keep them."
So, for the past month they have sat on her bedside table, largely ignored, munching their way through our summer greens.
And, for the past month, I have been the one tending to them, trudging down to the vege patch in my pyjamas late at night when I suddenly remember that they haven't been fed for a couple of days.
Being limited in my knowledge of all things gastropod, I naively thought a snail's lifespan was akin to that of a butterfly and expected nature to run its course within a matter of days. But, when the snails just kept getting fitter and fatter, I sought answers from Mr Google. Apparently, snails can live for up to 15 years.
By which time we will all have scurvy on account of four giant snails eating all our vegetables and Miss Four will have left home, leaving behind her mad snail-woman of a mother. Hmm. Perhaps we should have gone for a dog after all.
