Two months ago, Brogan's snail disappeared.

One morning, Dot's shell was laying on the bottom of the tank, empty. We assumed she'd outgrown it and was in hiding while she waited for us to buy her a new one, but Dot never returned to take up residence in the new shell.

I've cleaned and emptied the tank twice in those two months, and Dot. Is. Gone. We should've named her "Houdini." I've been watching my counters for the past two months, expecting to find a dried-up snail somewhere, but Dot appears to have gone dark. (Rest in Peace, Dot.)

So this weekend, we trooped off to the pet store to purchase another snail. On the way home, the kids called out possible names for the new snail: "Elvis!", "Speedy!", "Slimy!", etc.

The boys didn't like my suggestion of "Es-car." They just gave me mildly-annoyed, quizzical looks.

"Yes! Es-car!" I said, "So when we see the snail moving across the tank we can say, 'Look at that es-car go!' "

Nothing but groans from the peanut gallery. Sigh....

They ended up going with "Calvin." Our new snail is named after neither the former president, nor the great theologian. Nope! He's named after our favorite cartoon six year-old.





Welcome home, Calvin!

(Please stay alive!)