The ‘A’ama crabs or Lightfoot crabs in English are plentiful in Hawaii. Found around the rocky Hawaiian tide pools on the Big Island, often seen racing across the rocks as the surf crashes.
During family portrait sessions, young children often find old ‘A’ama shells sitting on a rock and feel sad thinking it is dead, until Uncle Beach (Me) tells them “the crab is not dead”, he has just left his old overcoat (shell) behind. He outgrew it just like children outgrow their winter coats. Yea! Uncle Beach saved the portrait shoot.
The ‘A’ama crab finds a pointy rock to snag his tight shell on, so he can squeeze out of it. Then he hides under a lava rock to stay safe from eels and other underwater sea creatures wanting an easy meal. Soon he will join his buddies again on top of the slippery rocks with his new shiny dark colored coat for protection.
Filming our dog Elvis is exhausting and exhilarating chases were fun. I’m glad I did because in very short order he became tired of the endless failures in his pursuits and stopped doing it, never returning to chase a single crab.
We always hear people say “Never give up, never”. Well, Elvis is smart and evidently a realist because he decided the crab hunt was a waste of his time for the unknown and ran off to chase a fat mongoose instead.
Elvis often teaches me life lessons in the oddest ways. Thank you, Elvis, for helping me with my priorities.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Ruff Ruff.
