At the begining of October last year, two beautiful little twins arrived – Faith and Charity:)
They were stunning, exuberant, and full of love. Peachy was still alive then, and she, Hope and Joy, adored these lovely little twins. I must have had them for about three weeks before I was finally able to tell them apart:)
There was something very special about having twins to look after, and I loved it. They were still small enough when they first came, that they often took hitch-hikes on the bigger ones backs, and it was soooo cute to watch. Though they fitted into our little slug family perfectly, the twins always had a very special love for each other. And they would seperate and play with the others, but if they were apart, even for a few moments, I could always look forward to witnessing a truly joyous re-union:)
Watching them grow and learn under Peachy’s loving care was wonderful, and she loved every moment of it.
Peachy sadly died at the end of Nov, surrounded and supported by Joy, Hope, Faith and Charity. It was the twins first experience of death, and though they acted throughtout with great dignity and respect- it was obvious their little hearts were broke. From the day Peachy died, little Faith never grew:( Her twin, Charity, ended up three times the size of Faith, but they were still inseperable.
I don’t think a day went by that I didn’t worry about my beautiful little Faith, she was so small and fragile.
Yet she showed what a huge heart she had that dreadful night just before Christmas, we all four almost died. Faith proved herself a hero that night, and without her intervention I know the others wouldn’t have survived.
By the time little Faith herself succumbed to the toxins, she had already lifted the other three much larger slugs from the water so they wouldn’t drown.
Miracously, all four survived,but little Faith had severe brusing on her head and face for weeks. She was a true hero.

Each one of our little family has a different personality, and each is adorable in their own way. But Faith had so many special qualities – her special and loving relationship with her twin, the desire always to put the others first. And I loved the way she tapped things she liked with her little antenna:) She’d tap the other slugs, she tapped me, she loved rings and would happily sit on my hand tapping away at the jewellery:) Everytime, I gave them a new toy, Faith would rush to examine it, and tap away with pleasure. And she always came and gave me a little tap on the nose as a thank you:)
And of course, she took great care of Hope’s eggs, and gently tapped and caressed them all. She spent many, many hours egg-sitting. And her care of tiny Valour, was wonderous to behold.
Despite her tiny size, Faith was perfect and beautiful in everyway, and we stole many precious moments together.
It’s now several weeks since my little hero died – and it’s taken till now to be able to post about it. I can still hardly believe she’s gone. Not only has she gone, but her death was very traumatic:(
Slugs are classified as heamaphrodites – they can give and recieve sperm. But there is always a predominant sex hormone, and that dtermines the gender. Faith was a little girl, but something went wrong, and the male hormones took over. Strangly, I had always dreaded Faith having eggs, because she was so small, and egg-laying often kills them. But, I never even considered the opposite might happen!
To my shock, one morning when I lifted her, her little head was all squashed to the side, and a bulbous organ was visible, and distorting her nead and neck. Obviously, the male hormones were very active, and I expected she would attempt to mate with one of the others, or even self-fertilize. Faith was greatly distressed, and made no attempt to mate, In fact, she seemed terrified by what was happening to her little body:(
Initially, I left the whole team alone, thinking nature would take it’s course – but as the day went on, it becames obvious that something was very wrong. Though the others wanted, and tried to comfort Faith, contact with them just made matters worse, and the same happened when I tried to comfort her. I placed her in cool water thinking that may help – but nothing did.
The three others, including her beloved twin, finally realised all they could do was watch from a distance.
I hoped the first night that the situation would resolve itself, and Faith would have recovered by morning. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Four days it went on, she couldn’t eat, drink of sleep, and was becoming more distressed all the time.
The vet was unable to help, but said things can go horribly wrong, and if the process doesn’t stop, it’ll kill her.
Tragically,on the fourth day, it did kill her:(
By this time, her little body was horrendously distorted, she was terrified, and unable to accept comfort from either me or the other slugs. She finally slipped into a coma from exhaustion, and died within a few hours. It seems death was her only releif, and the others, especially Charity, clambered to cover her with kisses and hugs.
One of the most upsetting things, is that her beautiful little body remained hideously distorted, even in death.
She was unrecognisable, and that really broke my heart.
I placed her poor little body in a jewellery box, surrounded by lettuce, parsley, and the little toys she had loved so much. But the others weren’t ready to let her go yet, and they crawled in beside her body. Charity would not be seperated, and spent the last night cuddeling her beautiful twin. It tore my heart to watch.
The next day, Faith was buried in the flower patch, and lies at peace beside Inspiration, Peachy, and Valour – only Hope is still missing.
At this stage, I still can’t say for sure if Charity and Joy will survive the traumatic death of Faith – both are very reluctant to eat, and fighteningly thin.
Courage, also stopped eating, but thankfully has started again. And as she has done since she arrived, she is spending her time loving and caring for the little family she adopted.

Just last night, I found the Mother’s Day card I’d bought for the pets to give mum. It’s was such a short time ago – but the signatures read, chloegoldenheart, Joy, Hope, Faith, Charity, Valour and Courage. It brought tears to my eyes – so few are left:(
love gemmword