pitchers tuck by buddy don: them critters

one of the questchuns posed by a reader wuz whuther we had lost inny of the critters that live in the tank, witch thats the 155-gallon aquarium we have in our livin room. purty much all them critters cum thru ok. nary a fish wuz missin, meanin all four of them catfish wuz still prowlin the bottom, witch they all gut names: felix the catfish (11.5 years in the tank), fritz (7 years in the tank), skip n scamp (3 years in the tank). all them africun cichlids wuz still a'swimmin round n threatnin each other (thar verr agressive fish).

but it seemd lack thay wuznt near as minny of them crawdads as befor, witch tiz a hard thang to suss out on a counta how they molt ever now n agin, n whenever they do that, they lack to hide, sumtimes buryin tharself in the gravel at the bottom of the tank. so ye mite could thank ye dun lost one n then thar he or she will be, bigger n briter than ever in a new exoskelton.

so twuz with a mix of fear n hope that we seen this on the bottom of the tank:



(the pitcher is the new exter large size they let ye use in smugmug now, witch they let ye use even biggerns n i am hopefull ye kin lank to em, witch i will try that by n by.)

i putt it thar sos ye kin see that tiz the remains of killer, ifn he is ded, but tiz his exoskelton ifn he is alive n hidin sumwhars. thats whut we are a'hopin. ifn ye look real keerfull lack, ye kin see a hole in the belly of the exoskelton, witch thats whut gives us hope killer is alive sumwhar. (tiz amazin how them critters kin hide!)

meanwhile, all them other crawdads is eatin thar share of that exoskelton, witch thats whut they do to git whut they need to make new exoskeltons of thar own. we have even seen em eatin thar own exoskeltons only thay have to be in a safe place on a counta whenever they molt, thays ritely vulnerabull to attack.

whenever we git a better idee whuther killer is gone or is jes fixin to emerge with a new n more beeyootifull bidy, we will let ye know. ifn he is alive, we will putt up a nuther pitcher of im.

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