A Blue Crab
in a
Tree!
Over the summer, while house hunting in South Florida, I spotted this little blue crab, in a tree! My first thoughts were of my little dog Merry, who on a trip to the Florida Keys, had been chased out of the ocean, by a very brazen blue crab, even smaller than the one in this tree.
I first noticed the crab when I was walking around the abandoned house, and erroneously assumed that the little crab was simply a shell of his former self. I thought he had been stuck in the tree as a decoration, perhaps some kind of trophy or souvenir that the former occupants, of the home, had acquired on a trip to the ocean. I did not expect it to be alive – in a tree, but it was!
Mesmerized by the clever little crab, I went back to my car, retrieved my camera and decided a blue crab, in a tree, needed to be photographed. I walked around the tree, tried to engage the crab, who had no interest in me, and seemed very happy in his tree; but he did scoot around the limb, to get away from me, and moved his claws enough to let me know he still had a fight in him.
I of course only wished he could speak – how in the world did the crab get into the tree? The house was situated a good block from the Intracoastal, and he had climbed rather high up, in this tree house. I walked away thinking: only in South Florida.
