Did I tell you about the time Parks and Wildlife picked one up at Watergate? I think maybe I did. It had been harassing folks for some time, and they finally got a couple of guys from Louisiana to nab it. They trussed it up and TPW came and threw it in their pickup and away they went. I think they said they were going to take it southwest – maybe over to Brazos Bend or the bayous around there.

They’re amazing creatures, for sure!

I came home one afternoon to find the washing machine clunking along, terribly off balance. I figured my houseboy, Phillip, had put in a load of towels and wandered off. I opened up the washer to redistribute the load, and what should I see but a load of shelled snails! There were four of them, as I recall.

They’re rather like conch, in the sense that their meat needs to be tenderized before you cook it. Phillip was pretty creative, and he figured out that the agitator paddles in the washer might do a fine job of it. Not only that, they’d be clean as a whistle when they came out.

We added a new rule to the list that day – no more tree snails in the washer. Phillip just rolled his eyes. I knew what he was thinking. “That Missy, she jus’ be too white!”

By the way – snail is sometimes called “Kiss meat” there, because some people eat the little ones by just sucking them out of their shells. Think of it as West African crawfish.

I am glad your game wardens take the alligators’ side! It’s good for people to realize that the fauna of a certain area are part of living in that area.