Mother isn't quite herself today

Last July Misty bought a bunch of fish for her tank. As always, the fish killed each other within a couple of weeks.

The sole survivor of the fray was a large snail which she'd also purchased against her better judgement. It continued to live in the tank, oozing its way up the glass and poking its disgusting apendages out of the water.

A few months ago, the snail met its end, and Misty rejoiced that she would no longer have to suffer its irrepressible grossness.

All of sudden last week, a new snail appeared in the tank. Or, at least, it seemed all of a sudden. The new snall is so small that it could have oozed around for quite a while, undetected. In fact, it's difficult to spot it in the tank now, even knowing that it's in there.

The pet store clerk who sold Misty the fish told her that snails were asexual and would reproduce on their own. We didn't expect it to happen months after our snail had died, though.

Since we never bothered to fish the carcass of the old snail out of the tank, its offspring has essentially been living with its dead parent. I wonder what sort of psychological damage this has done to the new snail.