Okay, so I'm a dude, and i cry. call me a wuss, but i love all of my pets, no matter what size or shape they come in. 2 recent events come to mind.
First the happy story:
Last week my wife was getting ready for work (4:30 am! geesh!) and she noticed something brown on the rug in my office. thinking that the dog had pooped in the carpet she walked in and turned on the light. she screamed loud enough to wake me upstairs. i ran downstairs (thinking rightly that something was really wrong, i was right). Lying on the floor was our Pl*co, which we have had for 4 years. Angie was crying and yelling "is he okay?" over and over. he was till a little damp, so i picked him up and rinsed him off in a bowl of tank water (i have no "Q" tank... well i do now!) i placed him back in the tank... and floated head down in the middle of the tank. my wife began to cry hysterically,and i teared up. all of a sudden, he righted himself and slowly swam to his normal hiding place. we both let out a sigh and really started crying! he jumped out probably because of lack of oxygen, i had WAY too many fish in a 10 gal and my wife was going to buy me a bigger tank for Christmas. We promptly went out and bought it early. the Pl*co now has a new name; Harry Houdini!!!
Now the sad stuff..
I had a snail i picked up at walmart (bought at the same time as harry the Pl*co) when i was first starting out in the hobby. no matter what things i did wrong to the tank (and god knows i went thru enough neon tetras) Wong foo (funny name, i know, he was a hermaphroditic snail.. i never found out wht kind he was) never seemed to mind my abuse. I had that snail for almost 4 years, and through him, my wife also learned a love of our wet friends. being a herm, he of course spawned babies, (thousands it seems... none of my friends are without one of his kids!)
Well he died this summer, and as i buried him under the cherry tree in the back yard, my wife and i looked at one another and asked each other if it was silly to cry over a stupid old slimy snail. it isnt silly, it shows that that creature meant a lot to you, and in turn you had to have meant a lot to it. maybe not in the same way, but love isint always cerebral, care=love. Fourtunatly, we have all of wong foo's babies to remind us of him/her.
I gotta go. im getting misty, seriously.
Bryan :sad