NOTIsn’t it characteristic of the most beautiful love stories to be unexpected and almost insignificant at their beginning? Beings become attached before they are even aware of it, no words have yet been spoken and, already, they have a crush on each other. Thus the adventures of Brady Brandwood and his friend Leon. Were it not for the title of the video (“Keeping A Grocery Store Lobster As A Pet”), the images of an abandoned aquarium and the loop musical worthy of a telephone hold would leave nothing foreshadowing of the romance that begins before our eyes.
In September 2021, this American videographer decided to put a 200-liter indoor pool back into service. He doesn’t hide any details from us about the location of the meeting with the happy future tenant, undoubtedly one of the luckiest crustaceans of his species: directly in the fish section of the local supermarket. Crudely, our aquarist even confides in voice-over that the lobster is “her favorite special occasion food”while the ” seafood “ alive and packed in its transport box slides on the automatic belt of a cash register. Did a shiver run down the animal’s spine?
Very quickly, the beast is installed in its new home. Then begins a touching acclimatization on both sides of the glass wall. Release of the claws hampered by elastics, first meal of microfish balls for Leon, who officially receives his baptismal name during this first immersion. The owner, satisfied and curious, admires the armor of his new protégé, all bristling with red spikes. Soon earthworms are thrown to the beloved crustacean which gradually stretches its ten legs and even benefits from rehabilitation assistance to regain full use of its claws.
Without wanting to spoil the series of videos that will follow, know that over the months Leon will experience a spectacular remission, that he will have the opportunity to devour many other foods that earthworms − a priori, they should not be part of a lobster’s standard diet −, and that one fine day it will even have to change shell then House.
At no time does Brady Brandwood seem to explain his initial gesture. Why did you decide to adopt a lobster? Is it a question of paying homage to the cursed poet Gérard de Nerval, who, in a famous fit of eccentricity, crossed the Palais-Royal in Paris in 1841, leading a crustacean at the end of a leash – he did not is it not certain that this walk had no effect on the animal’s health? Perhaps he chuckled in 1998 while watching episode 7 of the tenth season of Simpson during which Homer also adopts a lobster to fatten him up before finally getting attached to him? Alas, the unfortunate Mr. Pinchy will scald himself in his bath and end up as planned on the family dinner table.
You have 38.7% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.