Walking. Sunday Morning. DK Saves.

Posted on by Live & Learn

Let’s just get to the punch line of this story. (Oh, btw, it’s 724 consecutive (almost) days on my Daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a Row.)

There it lay.  At the end of my walk. An Atlantic Horseshoe Crab. Flat on its back. Nothing delicate or beautiful about this alien-looking thing. I’m sure its Mother loved it.

Its Telson was slapping back and forth. (Telson = Tail.  And of course I didn’t know that it was called a Telson. Googled it.) Creature was caught way up on the beach, tide shot out, and here we are. In Deep Shit. And you thought you were having a bad day?

I’m staring at the Telson (and yes, I’m going to keep repeating Telson like some career Marine Biologist)…and I’m wondering if its Telson carries electrical current. Or like a skunk, backs up its ass and spews sulfuric sh*t all over my camera gear.  Or like a Cephalopod, shoots ink all over me, seeping into my skin, and poisons me.

Stamford Daily reports: “Idiot found dead on Cove Island Beach trying to save Horseshoe Crab. Good News though, his death wasn’t for naught. It was notable that he was found flat on his back, like the Horseshoe Crab he was trying to save – – his mouth wide open, teeth blackened with Cephalopod ink, with his arms straight up in the air, because no matter what, the camera gear needed to remain undamaged.”

Per NatGeo, Horseshoe Crabs have been around for 450 million years. And here I am, Human, around an eye twitch of that time, trying to assess the probability of being electrocuted or poisoned.  I could have pulled out my smartphone and Googled it to be sure…but this gives you a full measure of this man…not a lot of depth, prefers to let the mystery of life and its currents drag him along to the finish. And ‘hopefully’ that Finish isn’t this morning.

So, there I am. Staring down on Horsey.  His limbs and Telson desperately seeking salvation.

Do the right thing?

Save yourself?

Who’s going to know?

Just keep walking.

It’s been such a nice, quiet, Sunday morning walk. Up to now.

I turn my back and walk.

And walk.

I’m listening to Delia Ephron’s new memoir “Left on Tenth. A Second Chance at Life“: “I went from believing nothing has any meaning to believing that everything does. Even though I’m often not sure what the meaning is.“

A Second Chance at Life. Horsey’s Second Chance.

I stop. Turn around.  G*d Damn it.

I approach Horsey.  And he’s still flailing.

I put the camera gear down.

I unleash the backpack and put it down.

I roll up the sleeves on my jacket. If there’s electric current, let it have a clear, direct shot right to my veins. No suffering. Just shock. Death in < 3 seconds.

There’s still time to just let this all go. For God Sakes, just grab him.

I gingerly grab his Telson.

No shock. Yet.

No squirting ink. Yet.

His arms and legs are now frantically flailing. Wonder if the Telson breaks off like a Salamander to save himself. Or if the Telson is some crucial body organ, and I’ve mortally damaged him by not grabbing him by his shell. GOOD GOD MAN, JUST DO IT.

I walk out in the water, Horsey-by-the-Tail, deep enough for him not to get trapped again. I gently set him down.

There’s no movement for a time.

I stand over to watch him. Prayer time?

Then his Telson twitches.  Right, and then left.  And then there was movement!  Life!

I watch over him for a few minutes, he’s swimming as if nothing happened to him, sniffing around the ocean bottom.  And he’ll go swimming for another 200 million years.

I traipse out of the water, stomping down on the beach to shake the sand from my boots.

Next Sunday morning, we’ll leave this saving lives to Jesus.

This is just too damn stressful.

Photos from this morning’s walk here: Daybreak. 5:18 to 5:49 am, May 15, 2022. 60° F, with fog. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.  It was a spectacular morning.

49 thoughts on “Walking. Sunday Morning. DK Saves.”

  1. Every day is an adventure, and today you found the meaning of the adventure for this 24 hour period! Thanks for imparting more of the DK sage wisdom and advice!

  2. LOL!! Yay!! ☺️👍 You’re hilarious! If you read up on the medicinal qualities of this crab’s blue blood, you’ll see you did a double good deed! 🌷

      1. They’re so grotesque (and so long with us), they had to be good for something, right? (And how wonderful that science has fashioned a synthetic substitute.)

  3. You did the right thing, David! Funny, there is a picture of my 4 year old younger brother holding a horseshoe crab by its Telson on a family trip to Cape Cod. I guess my immigrant parents were oblivious to the dangers when they told him to pick it up and pose. If I remember correctly, both boy and crab emerged intact from the photo shoot! 😂

  4. I love how you put it all out there. What an adventure! Proof that something special can and does happen every day. Some bigger than others, of course.

  5. Oh Gawd! You have me reeling with laughter… not to mention trying to figure out ways to use Telson in my every day speech!

    As an aside, as I was typing my response, I got to watch a Canada Goose scale the trunk of a poplar tree so she could perch on the flat top of the broken-off piece which happens to be above a squirrel whole. Goose contently viewing the riverbank where her nest is hidden when a squirrel pops out of the hole and angrily shoos the CG off! Quite an entertaining sight! not to mention site — but alas, no telsons, 🙂

    Thanks for the wonderful story and laughter.

  8. I love the account of your brave rescue. Had me laughing and worrying that you were really going to walk away. I knew you couldn’t do it, really. Mr. Putty-heart. Good for you!

  12. So glad you made it out alive ha!! 😳
    The indigenous say for every one deed you do in nature, it is repaid a thousands times over. Receive it all DK 🌈🙏🏻

  13. His rudder, attracted you to his peril…you inner rudder directed you to engage your heart…thank you for saving the Horseshoe Crab…I know how not long ago you felt so badly for the two or three wildlife lives you came across on your morning outing…

      1. meant to save 2 or 3 wildlife death…I remember how heart wrenching esp the one photo

  15. Brava, pal! Nothing like an anxiety-fueled rescue that might have given you a heart attack if you were of lesser mettle! I found myself tapping vigorously against the keyboard, hoping you would grab the horsey by the tail (so to speak)…

  16. oh gosh; I knew nothing about this creature and I had to look up EVERYTHING before returning to you – now, a full day or more later, I come to bow before you for this post…. when I started reading I thought ‘Why isn’t he just flipping that poor thing around and is done with’? Well, I know NOW. Thank You.

    1. Susan siad the same thing. “why didn’t you just flip it over?” I have no good answer for that!!! I was Too traumatized I think. 😄

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