Post by etana on Apr 30, 2016 18:15:16 GMT
The irony of Putkonen is, he was a snail whom I rescued from an owner who thought he was "boring", and he turned out to be one of those individuals who taught me special things and whose story I will always remember.
He came to me looking better than I expected, only he'd not seen another living, breathing snail since he was a hatchling. I carefully introduced him to two friendly snails, Tauno and Robert, which terrified him at first. My incredible Tauno however figured out how to gently welcome him here, and they became friends.
After a while I let Tauno, Putkonen and Robert in the big tank so Putkonen could meet the rest of the huge fulica family, and I'll never forget how the first thing he did was run over to a weird failing snaily orgy (aren't snaily orgies always weird, and don't they always fail?), and join right in.
Recently he got very weak. He already stopped eating once, but started again. Even his heart stopped once but started again, and he lived for many more days, doing a mini version of every snaily function there is except mating. I made sure he was near food, and he had friends near him, giving him a lot of pats.
Anyhow, these pics are from what turned out to be his last evening with us. He hadn't moved all day, and I took him and Tauno aside, because somehow Tauno is very good with sick snails and had helped him come out and eat many times before. (Click for big versions.)
Putkonen was extremely deep retracted, but see how Tauno is managing to get him to come out after rocking him and doing a series of pats with all tentacles. I wasn't fast enough to photograph the moment that Tauno actually reached into the shell with an eye and their eye stalks touched, like snails often say hello to each other. There's also a little bit of proof of gut functions.
Then they ate together. I had both sliced and grated some sweet potato and Putkonen definitely did eat those little strips of it. Tauno held him tightly like this the whole time as he himself rasped on a slice.
There was a hatchling who'd hitched a ride on Tauno (looks like one of his too with that silver foot), and Putkonen said hi to him too with an eye pat. The tiny guy's whole face was the size of Putkonen's eye so the patting had to be careful. An extraordinary thing in a way, as very soon after this photo, Putkonen retracted back deep in by himself. At that point Tauno let go of him completely, gestured at me, and I returned them to the tank. By the next morning Putkonen was gone.
As I already said once when his heart stopped,
Fly high, sweet Putkonen. We'll miss you.
I'm glad I could make it possible for you to feel snaily friendship and love, and maybe you even felt it that us humans here never thought you were boring.
He came to me looking better than I expected, only he'd not seen another living, breathing snail since he was a hatchling. I carefully introduced him to two friendly snails, Tauno and Robert, which terrified him at first. My incredible Tauno however figured out how to gently welcome him here, and they became friends.
After a while I let Tauno, Putkonen and Robert in the big tank so Putkonen could meet the rest of the huge fulica family, and I'll never forget how the first thing he did was run over to a weird failing snaily orgy (aren't snaily orgies always weird, and don't they always fail?), and join right in.
Recently he got very weak. He already stopped eating once, but started again. Even his heart stopped once but started again, and he lived for many more days, doing a mini version of every snaily function there is except mating. I made sure he was near food, and he had friends near him, giving him a lot of pats.
Anyhow, these pics are from what turned out to be his last evening with us. He hadn't moved all day, and I took him and Tauno aside, because somehow Tauno is very good with sick snails and had helped him come out and eat many times before. (Click for big versions.)
Putkonen was extremely deep retracted, but see how Tauno is managing to get him to come out after rocking him and doing a series of pats with all tentacles. I wasn't fast enough to photograph the moment that Tauno actually reached into the shell with an eye and their eye stalks touched, like snails often say hello to each other. There's also a little bit of proof of gut functions.
Then they ate together. I had both sliced and grated some sweet potato and Putkonen definitely did eat those little strips of it. Tauno held him tightly like this the whole time as he himself rasped on a slice.
There was a hatchling who'd hitched a ride on Tauno (looks like one of his too with that silver foot), and Putkonen said hi to him too with an eye pat. The tiny guy's whole face was the size of Putkonen's eye so the patting had to be careful. An extraordinary thing in a way, as very soon after this photo, Putkonen retracted back deep in by himself. At that point Tauno let go of him completely, gestured at me, and I returned them to the tank. By the next morning Putkonen was gone.
As I already said once when his heart stopped,
Fly high, sweet Putkonen. We'll miss you.
I'm glad I could make it possible for you to feel snaily friendship and love, and maybe you even felt it that us humans here never thought you were boring.
