Thursday, January 29, 2009

Says Ike to Tina: "Don't be so crabby!"

This week marks the first anniversary of the death of my beloved hermit crabs, Ike and Tina. They didn’t live a long life, by any means, but they did leave their mark on the world.

It all started when Nicole and I were in Nags Head, the second weekend in September, 2007. I decided after much deliberation that I was ready to open my home to a hermit crab or two. We went to Wings and there were SOOOO many hermit crabs to choose from. I wanted a boy and a girl (at least shell-wise…I have no idea how to tell a hermit crabs sex). I decided to make it easy and get one pink crab with one blue crab.

Duet names kept flowing through my brain: Captain ‘n Tennille, John and Yoko, Sonny and Cher, Garfield ‘n Otie, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton… you get the idea. Ultimately I chose Ike and Tina. There was just such a spark between the two of them. Explosive, even. That weekend proved to be a challenge for the newly-bought hermits. A tropical storm careened into the Outer Banks, and even though Ike and Tina were safe in their plastic palace with food and a wet sponge, they obviously worried about all of their crab relatives out there in the sand-holes on the beach.

I was just glad I saved them from immenent death by being the off-season hermit crabs at Wings.

We left Nags Head the next morning, and once we were home, Ike and Tina settled into daily life. They loved being taken out of their cage and roaming free, and soon learned that Hazel sniffing their shells was not anything to panic about.

Unfortunately, in January of 2008, I found Ike and Tina had passed away. The details of this tragedy have been buried so deep in my subconscious that I cannot even talk about it. So please don’t ask. A beach burial was in order, so after work one afternoon Nicole, Bly and I met at Buckroe Beach in Hampton for a short service. I will be eternally grateful to Nicole and Bly for braving the 30 degree weather that day. It was only fitting that we were all together again, remembering our times at the beach the previous September. We buried them in the sand, and painted a tombstone on the seawall by the second volleyball post.

A few tears were shed, mostly involuntarily due to the gale force winds, but we have since moved on. I know that Ike and Tina are in crab-heaven surfing warm waves and bathing in the sun. R.I.P Ike and Tina September 8, 2007 – January 30, 2008.

1 comment:

Kat said...

Aww. I'm from the Outer Banks (Avon, though, a good bit south of Nags Head) and used to have several hermit crabs of my own. What pretty shells!