Contributed by Martyn Green Coordinator, Baywater Anglers

Wilbur panicked then, heaving and lashing the water with his tail. He fought to escape, but soon began to tire, gasping as the oxygen in the water started to fall below the level that he needed to survive. Desperate, feeling himself weakening, he fought to stay out of reach of the many claws that beckoned him closer. Just then there was a piercing scream, so loud that Wilbur was shocked instantly to his senses. The human child who had caught him, legs pumping in terror, ran away just as a huge shadow crossed in front of the red wall of the little bucket. Two massive claws reached skywards and then, with a sudden, decisive pull it was thrown to the floor. “Quickly, Wilbur! There’s no time to waste!” It was Lenny! Lenny, his old friend the lobster who had been keeping an eye on him, just in case his ‘new friend’ was up to mischief. He tried to gasp out his thanks, but he couldn’t breathe, so instead he flapped and struggled and pushed his way along the ground and back into the welcome embrace of his own, familiar pool. Then, as the water revived him, there was an enormous splash, followed closely by lots of little ones. (At a safe distance from Lenny, of course.) A pair of kindly eyes looked up into his. “I had a feeling he was up to no good.” Wilbur shuddered. “Was he really going to eat me?” Lenny smiled. “Oh yes. Crabs can survive lower levels of oxygen than fish. When you died then both he and his cronies would have had a little feast.” He paused, watching sympathetically as Wilbur was sick. “Mind you,” he said thoughtfully, spitting out a familiar claw, “I don’t think he’ll be doing it again.”

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Lenny and Wilbur, safely back in Rockwater, free from both the humans and the crabs.