Triops

Last week we went down to visit G&GL for a day, just for a break from the horrible cold that seems to be making its permanent home in our town. The kids had a great time, and literally didn't fight from the minute we walked in the door to Grandma's until the minute we left (then proceeded to fight all the way home, but at least it was only in front of me). G&GL had just been out to the coast and had learned about these interesting little prehistoric crustaceans (AKA creepy swimming dinosaur-age shrimp), so bought some to give to the kids. They are called "triops" and they were certainly something I don't remember learning about in Science, or whatever subject you study dinosaurs during school. Anyway, they come in a tiny little packet and look like bits of dirt and sawdust, and when you put them in water that is at a certain temperature, they hatch. In the water. And turn into this...


I guess they are called triops because they have three eyes. Super creepy right? At least that's what I thought, before we actually successfully hatched two of them. (There are supposed to be up to 15 in a packet, but we figure that with the cold weather and my inability to ever actually grow or take care of anything living, 2 is a pretty huge success). We've had them for just over a week, and to my surprise, they are quite fascinating. They are constantly in motion, they eat anything they see, and they grow almost to double their size every day. If you want to see triops in motion, since I'm sure you're dying to know what they look like when they swim, click here. They live for about 30 days, and then either their life cycle ends or they eat each other. I'm really hoping for the life cycle ending, since I actually have watched a clip on YouTube of them eating each other, and it has given me nightmares. If I see them eating each other, I may never recover.

Why do I write about something so seemingly inconsequential? Well, I sort of see it as a sign of hope. If I am able to take care of triops until they die in 30 days, then I should be able to keep Missy Mae's future dog (not even 2 more months until that happens...deep breaths) alive for at least that long. And in the meantime, it's giving Tony P. and I something to do while we wait for this terrible cold weather to finally end. We cleaned out the bowl today. It took us an hour and we loved every minute of it.

So thank you, Triops, for providing me with a much-needed break from life. Here's to 21 more days. I wish all pets came with such a definite end date.