Varuna

This is the place to send a tribute for your departed hermies.
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Wai
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Varuna

Post by Wai »

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RIP 26/02/09 - 18/07/09

Dear Varuna,

So where to begin? I am absolutely devastated and speechless that I have to write you this message so soon. I had not imagined that holding you for a few minutes prior to leaving home for the airport would be the very last time that I would see you alive.

Some people say that no pain can be as torturing as fear. After all, no medicine can heal pain from the mind itself. I fear that one day when I grow old, if I live to be old, that one memory after another will fade from my mind without me knowing. What is it like to die? Is it like falling into an eternal sleep? No-one knows; after all, who would live to tell the tale?

My arrival at the pet store keeping you hostage shocked you. Perhaps you were the one who fell of the climbing wood? I peered through the glass and saw you withdrawn into your shell, but with the mouth of the shell facing me instead of down at the substrate. You peeked out to see me. Though by no means did I think at the time that you were willing to go home with me. After all, humans have done your species a lot of harm. I wish I had the ability to read your mind so that you could tell me what the poachers had done to you before you arrived at the pet store. I believe in karma; whoever is out there torturing hermit crabs will get what I think they deserve in the end.

So I took you home, along with Ixion, who was still climbing on the pet store's wood piece at the time. At home, you were very active. You were also a fast moulter; you took about two weeks to surface from your first moult. I don't remember why I kept you and Ixion in the iso for so long, about a month's time. However, since you moulted there, I had to leave you alone. I hope that you were relieved that you got to roam in a bigger tank once I moved you to the main tank, where Eris and Haumea were. You have been through many different set ups and I apologise if you were stressed that I kept changing the layout every now and then.

You also changed shells a lot, like Haumea. However, did Haumea kick you out of your shell while you were buried? One day, I found Haumea running around on the surface with your shell on, while you were crammed into Haumea's one. Is that your main cause of death? Being shell shocked is no doubt stressful, but your death may have been my fault too, since I accidentally dug you up at least two times while you were possibly pre-moult.

Finally, the day of horror came and I found you hanging limp out of your shell upon returning home from Hong Kong. You didn't smell dead and from everyone else's advice, I thought there was still a chance of you being alive. Had your mind already faded at that time? I waited for two weeks and then found a hole in your back and that your abdomen was black and decomposed. Words cannot describe how scared I felt. I wanted to tug you out of your shell and bury you in the garden, but I was horrified to look at your rotting body. I started shaking you out of your shell and flinched as your body swung and hit my hand. I was simply overwhelm with fear at what I was doing and felt terrible that I did not gently place you into the soil. I hope you don't mind that I kept the shell that you last wore. I have lost the opportunity to see you alive and the shell would be one of the few things I have left of you.

Still, everyone has memories that they wish they could erase. One of mine would be burying you in the garden. How could a favourite child of mine be reduced to a lifeless body? However, people ought to face reality and deal with it, after all, we revolve around the world. The world does not revolve around us.

I will do my best to raise your siblings. Every now and then I will blankly look at the few photos I have taken of you while you were still alive and hopefully, happy. I wonder if the butterflies have taken you to the moon? If not, where have they taken you? Although science does not support their existence, they do so in my nightly dreams.

Rest in peace, my daughter.

Wai
(Your try-hard human parent)
Wai
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Ayume
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Joined: 10 Jan 2010, 05:26
Gender: Female
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Total gallons: 40
Total tanks: 2
Location: British Columbia

Re: Varuna

Post by Ayume »

Rest in Peace.
Wai this was really heartfelt. I actually choked up a bit. I'm certain you were a wonderful memory for her, much better than the petstore ever could have been.
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