Question & Answer Time with Oliver the Snail

Hi, everyone. It’s Sasha.

We’ve been getting a lot of mail here at Cherry Wood Lane Pals Central (my house – but I thought that sounded more important). I’ve been barking at the mailman every day, asking if he has anything for us. Some days, he says, “Yep, I sure do, Sasha. You can have it if you stop barking.”

It’s extremely hard for me to stop barking, but I want to get our mail more than I want to bark so I settle with wagging my tail and jumping up and down.

I asked Diana to gather all our mail and computer emails and sort them into a bag for each pal. I then asked each of my pals if they would like to answer some of the questions. Oliver graciously agreed hang out and answer a few.

I ran outside on my patio yesterday to meet-up with him and settled on my favorite chair. Oliver arrived wearing his snail mail bag (Snail Joke), s-l-o-w-l-y skidded to a stop, and settled on the patio stones.

Hi, Oliver. Thank you for hanging out with me to answers some questions. I can’t wait to see what our reader friends have been asking our favorite snail.

Oliver pushed his mail bag to the left side of his shell and opened the top flap.

Hi, Sasha! Sure, I’d love to answer questions for our pals. Dig around in my big bag and let’s go.

I dug around inside the bag and drew out a small yellow postcard mailed from Portland, Oregon.

Our first question is from Gabe. He says ‘Hi’ and hopes you are doing great. He loves snails and has three that he keeps track of in his back yard. Their names are George, John, and Dave. He would like to know:

Do snails blink?

Yes, we do blink. Sometimes I get dirt or bits of leaves on my eye stalks and blink to clean them off. I also blink when my eyes get a bit dry, just like you do.

Oh, wow. You blink just like I do. Great to know. I never saw you blink. Can you show me?

Slowly Oliver turned his eye stalks directly towards me, waggled them back and forth and, sure enough, blinked right at me. I couldn’t help it. I giggled. Oliver is so funny. I bent down and dug around in the mail sack again and pulled out a beautiful card covered with painted tulips. Very nice.

Oliver, you are the funniest snail I know. Our second question is from Amy in Federal Way, Washington. Amy is 8 and has a big family. She has two older brothers and one younger sister. She thinks family is very important and wants to know:

Do you have any family?

I sure do. I have a Mom and Dad, some sisters, brothers, and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins all living somewhere on Cherry Wood Lane. We do tend to live mostly by ourselves because we have our houses with us all the time. Every now and then we get together and chat about the local news and events. If you see us on the sidewalk chatting away, please be careful and don’t step on us.

I sat up straight and confessed a scary secret.

I almost stepped on you once, Oliver. I was doing my evening busyness late one night and didn’t see you rushing across the sidewalk to get to safety in the bushes. I got so scared I just sat down to catch my breath before moving on. Diana couldn’t budge at all. I’ve been much more careful ever since.

Oliver solemnly looked at me and heaved a big sigh.

It’s ok, Sasha. I’ve been almost stepped most of my life. It is scary but we can repair our shells if it’s a small crack. Sometimes the damage is too much. If you did accidently hurt one of us, we would try to understand. Wouldn’t be very happy about it, but life happens when your busy focusing on your busyness, I guess.

Amy’s question made me realize it was dangerous for Oliver to cross the sidewalk. I started to wonder just how different everyday life can be for someone else, even if we live in the same neighborhood.

Seems you have to be very brave most days, Oliver. That’s one of the things I admire most about you. You quietly go about living your best life every day. I’m going to try to do the same.

I dug around in the bag again, all the way to the bottom, and pulled out a printed email question sent to us on the Cherry Wood Lane Pals website a few days ago.

Our last question is from Jemma. Jemma says she just celebrated her 7th birthday. She had a super day, enjoyed pizza for dinner and had a big party with her family with lots of balloons and a few presents. Her favorite present was a book on the life cycle of snails. Jemma would like to know:

How old is Oliver?

I don’t actually know old I am. I do know that snails usually live between 3 to 7 years. We pack a lot of living into our short lives.  When it gets dry or cold outside we hibernate in the soft dirt or under leaves and wake up when it gets warmer and rainy again. This helps us live longer.

I wagged my tail and said,

That was so much fun, Oliver. Thank you for stopping by to answer our reader friend’s questions. I’ve known for a long time there was more to snails than slime. I’m thrilled others get to know it too!

Thank you everyone for sending us questions and adventure ideas. Keep sending them. We read everything that is sent to us and can’t wait for more.

If you would like to ask Sasha or any of the Pals on Cherry Wood Lane a question or have an adventure idea, send us a note here on the web page and we’ll have Diana print it and get it into the right Pals mail bag.

Plus – We are getting a PO Box at the big post office just for Pals mail and will let you know the address as soon as we set it up.

Love & Hugs from all of us on Cherry Wood Lane.