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the garden had been full of slugs for a few days now, but I hadn’t had the heart to hurt the little guys.
They were so colorful and fluffy, and they had little human faces. I had to look them up when I saw that, and found out they were geruge slugs. I apparently had a garden good enough to attract them, since they were rare.
The little guys traveled in their pack of six, each one a different color, and I watched them from my window.
About palm sized, they would slide around the yard and garden, playing with rocks, or leaves. They were eating my tomatoes and strawberries, yeah, but I wasn’t going to stop them.
The storm rolled in about a week after I found out about Geruges, and the minute I heard the thunder, I knew I had to get them inside. I’d read they were delicate and would be hurt by any flooding or being hit too hard by hail.
How to do it though? I got out some blueberries from the fridge and laid a trail from my open back door into a bucket in the kitchen. Hopefully this would work.
The first one to come inside was the yellow one. He didn’t even pay attention to the berries, instead zooming in quickly and exploring my kitchen. He wiggled up the counter and rolled around in the sink.
Following him at a much slower pace was the purple one. This one was more cautious, peeking in and taking a good look before sliding inside. He picked up a berry and slid under the edge of the cabinets, munching in the shadows while occasionally peeking upward at the yellow one.
The red and blue ones came in together, one after the other, following the food trail into the bucket. Although, the blue one was then nudge out by the red one as if he’d claimed this bucket for himself and didn’t want the blue intruder.
I didn’t see when the others came in, as I went to look up more on these odd little things. By the time I returned with my camera and laptop, the pink one was sitting on my dining table and the green one had joined the blue one in trying to oust King Red from his bucket.
They were subspecies, but always lived in tandem with each other, and I named them after their species names. Red is Oso, Blue is Kara, green is Choro, purple is Ichi, yellow is Jyushi, and pink it Todo. They’re all in the genus ‘matsu’ so I dropped this part to simplify things.
Oso was not removed from the bucket, as instead I quickly shut the door as the rain had started. This startled the slugs and made them scatter, but Jyushi was stuck in the sink and whimpered pitifully as I came over. The other five were hiding, but once I tried to pick up Jyushi from the sink, something ran into my foot.
Ichi was growling and gnawing on my shoe, being very aggressive. he obviously didn’t want me messing with Jyushi at all. However, it was easy to ignore his protests since Jyushi needed help. He couldn’t climb the smooth edges of my sink, since the lingering water in the bottom had dissolved his slime. The yellow fluff ball shivered when he saw me reaching for him, curling up and whining more. “Poor baby,” I cooed to him, scooping him out of the sink and cupping him in my hands. “It’s okay, little Jyushi, I won’t hurt you.”
He stayed curled up tight till I got a towel and swaddled him up in it. The fuzzy texture was comforting, it seemed, and he nuzzled it while still looking warily at me. Ichi had been stubbornly ravaging my shoe with his teeth the entire time, but once I set the towel with Jyushi down on the floor, he slithered over and climbed over to chirp and murmur with his brother. After being assured Jyushi was not hurt, Ichi wiggled the towel around till he made enough room to sit in it as well.
I decided to let them have the kitchen for the remainder of the storm, and knew they’d need time to adjust to being indoor slugs (apparently they made good pets as long as you kept them together?), so I walked away, closing the door behind me. I’d check on them in a while.