Farewell Barry....Wait a Second

For the last week and a half, Brooklynn has been carrying around her new pet in a jar. Barry the snail has been a constant companion. He sleeps on the bookcase next to her bed, watches her eat meals, and when she goes outside to play she finds a babysitter for him. Usually, I am the lucky one. She has made all sorts of 'interesting' snail observations (which she is more than willing to share with all who will listen), learned their habits, drawn portraits of Barry, and learned the different parts of his body.

By Saturday Barry had pretty much stopped moving. He didn't come out of his shell anymore. Poor Barry. Monday I finally had the nerve to tell her that Barry had died. (He had been suctioned to the side of the jar and was starting to come loose.) She burst into tears and sobbed in my arms for quite a while. She finally decided that he must be buried. Jeffrey and I were her much needed moral support. She chose his final resting spot in the backyard, dug a hole, buried him, and created a mound of dirt to mark the site. It was a VERY EMOTIONAL day.

This morning she went to pay tribute to her friend. There was a hole in the ground where she had buried his shell and he was no longer there. Another burst of tears. Then she thought, "This is the 3rd day since he was buried, maybe he was resurrected!" She ran all over the yard looking for Barry. And guess what? She found him along with Cherry and Dirty and a baby snail. What joy! What ecstasy! An entire family of snails!