R.I.P. Tiger Woods

No, not THAT Tiger Woods, our hermit crab Tiger Woods.

I was giving Simon crap about not giving his hermit crabs water and food the other night.  He finally got off his butt and did, but he came to me and said, “Mom, Tiger’s not moving.”  Sometimes Tiger is shy, so I was hoping he was just not in the mood to move.  I went to his cage and picked him up and as I was lifting his shell out of the cage, he flopped out of it into his newly filled water dish.  Dead.

Poor Simon.  His face just went white.  And Oh.My.God. what a smell!  Aaaaack.

So I did what any good mom would do, I called my husband down to take care of it.  LOL!

We had Tiger for almost a year.  We got him after Albert, who is still alive.  Simon came to me last night and said he couldn’t get the image of Tiger falling out of his shell out of his mind.  He said it scared him so much.  Poor thing.  I know what it is like to dwell on things that bother you.  It’s a tough lesson, and there is nothing I can do to help him with this.  I told him to try to remember Tiger in his shell when he thinks of him.

Tiger and Albert

Rest in peace, Tiger.  (he’s the one on the left in the picture)

July 21, 2008 | Filed Under Parenting 

Comments

7 Responses to “R.I.P. Tiger Woods”

  1. tribeofautodidacts on July 21st, 2008 5:37 pm

    Poor Tiger!

    http://tribeof3feistykids.blogspot.com/

  2. debra on July 23rd, 2008 5:23 pm

    So sorry. These losses seem to be preparation for others that we will face.
    Take care

  3. Nance Confer on July 24th, 2008 7:09 am

    One of our hermit crabs died right away but the other is still meandering on. For over a year now. How long are they supposed to live?

    Nance

  4. Not June Cleaver on July 27th, 2008 9:26 am

    Hi Nance! Some people say they can live 10 or more years. There is even a rescue organization for hermit crabs! Those folks say they can live up to 30 years if properly cared for. But most of the people I found said theirs lived anywhere from a few days to a few months. It’s hard to keep them alive in captivity.

  5. jj on July 27th, 2008 9:49 am

    Hard to keep them alive in captivity? Maybe that had something to do with how they came to be called “hermits” in the first place? So what would “proper care” be for something that dies when cared for? Talk about the philosophy of science!

  6. Not June Cleaver on July 28th, 2008 12:45 pm

    LOL jj!! Good point. Hermits hold themselves in captivity. Do they die because we care for them, or do they die because of the way we care for them?

    I’m no hermit crab expert, but the environment of the cage is really important. They must have a pretty high humidity level (thus the little sponges you are supposed to keep wet). They also can’t be cold. They need purified water (or water that has been left standing out for a day). That’s about the extent of my knowledge.

    You can’t really kill them with kindness.

  7. Colleen on August 8th, 2008 10:23 am

    We’ve had ours for almost two years now. We used to have two of them. The first one appeared to be dead so we buried it but a few months later the second one appeared to be dead and I didn’t get around to burying it right away and it turned out he was just molting–which made me think maybe I buried the first one prematurely–poor guy. :( He really looked dead though. But then so did the second one–but he wasn’t. I’d guess that since Tiger smelled bad he really was dead though. That’s too bad. :(

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