The snail and the deer

I took this photo on March 24. Deer tracks in moist soil caught my attention. When I noticed a small garden snail crawling near one deer track, I encouraged it toward the track with a small dead leaf stem. Slowly the snail advanced until it finally went out on the span of mud that had squished between the deer's toes.

I smiled, thinking that the snail must have felt like a fine car crossing a highway overpass. I was reminded of the story "The Tortoise and the Hare."

Thousands of kinds of land snails exist on most continents of the world. All of them move slowly on a single slick foot that has no bones and is not attached to a leg. Just thinking about that should convince you that snails are cool. And they are pretty cute, too.