The only emergency we had was a mess.  We had been picking up shells on the seashore, making sure that they were empty of critters.  Pat carefully checked each one, declaring it empty.

But fiddler crabs are crafty little creatures.  That night after it was dark and we had gone to bed, we heard some scratching noises in the box where we had put the shells.  Pat got up and checked and sure enough, the biggest shell was inhabited, and moving around.  She was really upset.

Within a few minutes, other critters began to crawl around.  Fifteen shells were home sweet home for a family of fiddler crabs.  They have a way of folding up inside a shell completely out of sight.  "I can't believe this," Pat cried.  "I checked every one of these shells."

I've told you stories before about Pat.  She is my "animal healer."  When she was no more than four or five years old, she was dragging broken turtles home, cats that had lost their tails, squirrels that had been run over, etc. etc...she couldn't bear the plight of wounded animals.  Of course there were also animals--supposedly lost with no home--that needed her care as well.  She always had a menagerie in boxes, fish bowls, dog beds and such.  She loves animals and can't bear their suffering.  She either heals them or kills them with affection.

Well, she was distraught.  She put a little salt in some tap water and hoped for the best.  We didn't have a restful night.  Come morning, she told me, "We have to go back to the beach.  (Which was a good ways south of us.  We were already been on our way home.)  I knew that there was nothing that would calm her but to go find salt water and turn our fiddler crab family back out into the water.  I had learned long ago that when a wounded or lost animal was involved, I should just do whatever she said.  In all the years I've known her, I've never known her to give up where an animal with a problem was concerned.

Back to the Gulf we went.  I watched her trek down to the sandy shore and one by one make sure that all the creatures swam away unharmed.  She came back to the car smiling.  "I think all of them are going to make it.  I am so relieved!!"  And I know she was.  This isn't my first rodeo where Pat is concerned about an animal.  I should know, since I've been her mother for over 60 years.