The Little Crab Who Fell From Heaven

My kids have been begging for a pet hermit crab for years.  We have told them that if we ever saw one at a pet store here, then we would buy it for them.  But the pet stores we frequent never seem to have hermit crabs.  Our kids never gave up hope, however, and I even heard Lizzie pray for one once in her bedtime prayers.

Well, a couple weeks ago, something miraculous happened.  As the kids were walking to their piano lessons, Lizzie saw a shell moving on the side of the street.  She pointed it out to the others and Andrew picked it up to inspect it.  A cute little hermit crab poked out.  

The kids were ecstatic!  They raced back home and came bursting excitedly and nervously through the door, "Please don't be mad at us for not being at piano, Mom!  We found a hermit crab on the street!  Can we keep it?  Please, please, please?"

"Of course we can keep it!"  I replied, "This is amazing!"

They cheered and sang my praises.  It was so cute to see them so happy.  Since we are more than an hour from the coast, here in the middle of this concrete jungle, we figure he must have been discarded or escaped from his previous owner.  What a miracle that my kids spotted him on the roadside.

A few days later, while at the store, I stopped in the pet section and picked up a plastic pet cage that looked good for a hermit crab.  It has a little plastic palm tree in it that stands about 3 inches tall.

As we were eating dinner that night, I looked over at the cage and saw the crab, whom the kids named Pinchy, on top of the palm tree.

"Andrew, did you put Pinchy on top of the palm tree?" I asked.

"No.  Did you, Savannah?  Lizzie?"  he asked.

"No,"  they each replied.

We stared at Pinchy in amazement.  Sure enough, we discovered he had climbed up there himself.  We kept watching and a few minutes later, we saw him climb down and then back up again.  We had no idea that hermit crabs are such great climbers.

Here's to our cute little miracle crab, who seems to have fallen from heaven to my faithful, crab-loving kids.  May he live a long life!