Having been the owner of multiple species of animals both big and small, it is incredible to see the personalities of my pets, no matter how big or how small.
Everybody expects a dog and cat to have a personality. But nobody expects a hamster, a fish, or a reptile to have a personality. And that's why I find it so fascinating that they do.
I've owned many animals both large and small. I've owned a dog, a cat, a rabbit, multiple fish have come and gone. I've owned gerbils, hermit crabs, rats, and frogs. And I can remember each and every pet and their distinctive personality traits.
I won't go into detail about my cat, rabbit, and dog, because it's obvious that they have a personality and I want this post more to focus on the pets that are small. The ones nobody expects to even have a personality.
The first big pet purchase I made were my hermit crabs, I bought 3 of them; Claws, Hermie, and Shellz. I know, real creative names, right? Anyways, I remember each of their personalities so well. Claws was the type to always come out of his shell claws first. He was huge, compared to the others, and he was the dominant one in all of them. He was friends with Shellz but he hated Hermie. He would always charge at him and knock him over. He was a big bully to Hermie. And even though he had the biggest claws of them all, and scared the crap out of my friends that he would pinch them... He was the gentlest of them all. You could pet his claw and he wouldn't even open it. He would let you pet him, pick him up, and he wouldn't dare to pinch you.
Hermie was very shy. It would take him at the very least 3 minutes to come out of his shell, though it was usually around 5 minutes. If you moved a muscle while he was peeking out of his shell, he would go right back in and not come out for another hour. But, when he did come out of his shell, he would realize everything was okay and he would play around for a while. I used to set up a little toy slide for them and they would literally climb up the ramp and then go down the slide like they were actually having fun.
Shellz was kind of a brat. He was the smallest of the bunch. He wasn't a bully like Claws, and accepted Hermie. But, Shellz wasn't afraid to pinch you if you pissed him off. Of course, he would let go and would pinch hard. But he would definitely let you know if he was displeased. And sometimes, when he would just be sitting in you hand, he would open and close his claws. I don't know why he did this (probably looking for food), but it would put me on edge wondering if he was deciding whether he should pinch me or not!
So that's my daily banter of today. I hope you enjoyed it!
