The Great Hermit Crab Catastrophe

I have only recently became the proud owner of a pair of hermit crabs. I thought it would be fun to occasionally bring them into work so the library kids could see and learn about them. I have owned many pets in the past, but this was my first time with hermit crabs. I had to do a lot of study on what they eat and how to take care of them and keep them healthy. I've been like a little mother hen, watching carefully over my little chicks, making sure they have enough moisture, warmth, food, and clean water (both salty and clear) to keep them happy.

So imagine my horror this morning, when, while transporting them to work, I accidentally took a turn too fast and their cage went flying across the back seat and crashed into the car  door on the far side. (I swear I wasn't going that fast at the time. It was a total freak accident) I'm imagining all sorts of horrid scenes of little mangled hermit crab bodies strewn across the bottom of the cage. After a few minutes of mentally freaking out, I glanced fearfully over my shoulder at the cage and discovered that one of the crabs (who had been sleeping peacefully inside his shell when I left the house) was now perched on top of one of his overturned climbing branches, completely unharmed and waving his little legs and feelers madly in the air like, "What the HECK was that?" This is my abnormally shy crab who almost never comes out of his shell. He was wide awake now--and trying to figure out why his world had suddenly been upended. When I got to work, I discovered that the other hermit crab had been burrowed deep down into his dirt and was completely fine. I'm not sure he even realized anything had happened. The shy crab eventually calmed down and went straight back to sleep.

It would seem that I was the one most traumatized by the whole incident.