Snails, Slugs and Sidewalks

I was sitting outside yesterday morning when I noticed something on all the sidewalks. Everywhere you look… trails of wet goo. (My foster mom calls it slime). It turns out that the trails are made from snails and slugs. - Busy little guys at night.

The other thing I noticed is that the snails and slugs that survived the night (as evidenced by the slime trail) are the ones that left the grass and traveled across the sidewalk and then turned back to the grass before sunrise. The snails that didn’t survive (as evidenced by the fried snail on the sidewalk) left the safety of the grass, traveled too far away and dried out in the morning sun. Joining them were the fried earthworms. Just as an aside, Nokona likes to eat them. Some dogs will eat ANYTHING.

Now I know I’m just a dog but it seems to me the snails need an oasis (the grass) but they like traveling across the desert (the sidewalk). However, if they don’t stay close to the oasis, they are pretty much like humans and die of thirst. Snails have eyes (I checked) so why can’t they see they are traveling too far away from the moist grass? I asked Jet about this and, as always, she had an interesting retort, which I’ll paraphrase below.

Snails are like people. Sometimes, they make dumb mistakes. Like snails, humans can see what they need (good health for example) but they are attracted to the mystery of the desert (extra portions of food and two helpings of dessert). The outcome: 40 extra pounds and a heart too tired to tick.

Which leads me to the lesson of the day… Adventuring to new places, beyond your oasis, your familiar safe zones, can be fun. Dogs, humans and even snails like adventuring. The key is to know how far to go.

Okay, here’s the question of the day from BJ who asked: We are visiting the family lake house. It’s my first trip at the joint and I REALLY like it. Lots of playtime, water to swim in… Life is good. One thing though, my tummy is feeling funny after I drink the water.

Dear BJ:

Remind your humans that the water is different at the lake house than it is at home. You should be drinking half home water and half local water for the first few days. Bet it helps.


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