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the snail days are upon us
i found a snail stuck to our front door on a HOT hot day. really hot outside, 104F or 40C. he was really dry and felt the cool air flowing out of the crack under the door. i picked him up, and made him a temporary enclosure with a paper bowl, and a soaked paper towel for moisture. i initially thought he was dead because for the first 30 minutes, he would not leave his shell.





until.

oh my goodness! hes alive! i immediately got a strawberry for him to eat, and i added more water to the paper towel, as well as leaving a couple droplets near him.
he grew fond of the strawberry. he climbed onto it and began nibbling!
things were looking good for neil. i put a lid on the bowl and i went to sleep. i woke up and i saw that he had burrowed into the wet paper towel. very sweet! i saw a trail of goop all around the bowl, he was travelng everywhere!!
by this point i had him for maybe 2 days, i left him sitting on the glass stovetop with a lid on his bowl. i showed him to my mom and she just said somthing like "thats probably the fucker who's been eating the leaves off my plants"
i told her that was quite mean and it was most likely june beatles doing most of the damage. whateverr. neil can eat whatever he wants.
the next day i wake up, and the strawberries in his enclosure were getting a bit moldy. i was worried theyd make him sick, so i googled whether or not neil could eat them still. apparently he can! snails eat fungi and moldy fruits. it is benificial and dosnt harm snails. google only advises removing the moldy fruit due to the fact it can effect intricate enclosures. since he resided in a paper bowl, i felt no urgency to remove the moly strawberry.

then.
disaster struck.

i woke up from a nap, went to go check on neil, and his enclosure was GONE. i checked the other countertops in case my mom may have moved him so she could use the stove, but i couldnt find him anywhere. i was beginning to fear the worst. did my mom throw him out?
i then checked the trash. and there it was. his bowl, his paper towel, and his strawberries. in the trash.
i pulled the bowl out of the trash as well as his paper towel. but i couldnt find neil. i put on gloves and moved the trash to see if he may have fallen deeper in the trash. no sign of him.
i left his bowl out on the counter to show my mom the disdain i felt for what she did. i then told hocus what happined and she comforted me, he told me that if he really was in the trash, that hed probably be having a good time eating garbage. or that if my mom did toss him outside, that there were many places for him to hide. none of these things entirely reassured me, though.
i had never felt such sadness. being inside every day and rarely leaving the house. i found a creature to take care of, an outlet of happiness, and my mom just THROWS HIM OUT?? i was very sunken and sad.
i then began to come to terms. he probably was just thrown outside and is eating leaves right now.
after a night of vr chat with hocus and devon, i went out into the kitchen and ate icecream straight from the tub. very good. the sun was starting to rise. i had a weird feeling. spidey senses, if you will. i had the urge to poke my head out the front door to try and spot neil.
then. right by the welcome mat, there he was. curled up inside his shell. I HAD JUST FOUND NEIL NEARLY 9 HOURS AFTER LOSING HIM. i immediately pick him up, examine him, made sure he was still inside his shell, and i immediately made him a more perminant enclosure out of a clear glass vase. pebbles at the bottom, a layer of soil on top, with a soaked paper towel for him to burrow in, and a nice green leaf from the plant my mom had.
relief.

here's a top down view of his new house.

here's a video of him being creepy crawly. crawling up the vase and eating the water drops.

this enclosure is still temporary, but it is much better than the paper bowl. i plan on fidning him a 5 gallon container. il then buy more proper equipment and suppliments so he grows big and strong.
i stuck my finger out in front of him and he began nibbling on my finger tip! ouch!

later on in the day, my mom came home from work. i had a bone to pick with her. she was in the bathroom, and when she came out, i said "you threw out my snail!" and she said "well you were mistreating him leaving moly food in there." i tried to tell her that snails thrived around fungus and mold, and that it diddnt harm him in the slightest. she did not believe it. she then said "i put him on a leaf outside. hes fine." i then told her i had actually found him on the concrete, still in the spot she left him in. i then showed her his new enclosure, and she said "whatever. he's all yours! its not like i want him outside in my garden! hed just die from pesticides out there." i was very heartbroken that shed spray snail pestisides. we live on a FARM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS. we should be friends with the snails.
today when trying to find more snails, i found a MUCH larger one outside, with a shell bigger than a quarter. but theres 2 huge daddy long leg spiders near it and so i dont want to get close. id take in that one too but id worry hed just eat neil due to their size difference. this one's name is cicierega.
il probably make more posts about neil if theres any new things to happen.