The Naming of Things

For the past few years, I've cycled through countless snails in my little two-gallon aquarium.

While I have no reason to believe I'm doing anything wrong in procuring the longevity of these creatures, I'm always a wee bit disheartened when I realize another critter has met its demise while in my care.

But this hasn't prevented me from continuing to rely on the golden apple snail as a companion for my fancy tail goldfish, Jude.

Suffice it to say I grew tired of coming up with new names for my snails (they didn't come to me regardless of what I called them), so I always referred to them simply as Bartleby (because snails prefer to not do much) and Billybudd (because I imagine that — much like their form of locomotion — they'd stutter if they could talk).

That is to say, every time I acquired two new snails, they acquired those two old names.

But my aquarium has been snail-less the past few weeks, an isolation I remedied last night by adding two new, smaller species to the mix.

Driving home and considering what to name them, I decided it was time for a change of tune, if you will.

I'm calling the bigger one Eleanor. The smaller one: Prudence.