Since we had to get rid of our cats, Biff and Silky, we’ve pretty much accepted that we were going to be a no pet family. That was two years ago.

Recently, we decided the boys could do with a bit of pet loving goodness.

So meet Anthony the hermit crab.

Callum first wanted to call him Crunchy Munchy – which I said was an AWESOME name for a hermit crab, but at the last moment he decided to go with Anthony. I tried to convince him to change it back to Crunchy Munchy, to no avail.

I even tried to explain WHY it was so funny – our eating habits are ethnically Chinese, and Chinese people like seafood – but the nuances of cultural sarcasm offended my 4 year old.

It was like when he tried to name his bike.

We also have Billy Balow, named by Sean (and who knows WHERE he got that name from). But Billy the hermit crab has a personality disorder, thinks he’s a rock, and he hates kids.

We’ve set up a little funky aquarium in our living room. We’ve finally got a home for our collection of shells, driftwood, rocks and treasure from the beach. The crabs are so easy to look after. The kids love them and play with them every day. It’s all gold.

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