I'm afraid Sammy the sheep is left us for the great fax machine in the sky. We now have a giant African snail called Robin.

Couldn't you have got a nice furry office-sized creature (hamster, gerbil?)? Those giant snails are scary - what if it escaped? Think of the mess it would make, eugghhhhh!!!

P.S. Whatever you do, don't be tempted to eat it in the case of a sausage sandwich famine, they can apparently carry a parasite which causes meningitis
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/rarespecies/a/pestsGALs.htm

Thanks Ann. There is talk of a hamster. I don't think there's any problems with Robin escaping. If he did, we'd have at least a week to find him before he got as far as the door!

I'd recommend a Russian Dwarf, they're lovely
(I had a Syrian one and it was extremely bitey although admittedly can't conclude too much from this as only n=1).

I take it you mean a russian dwarf hamster, rather than just a Russian dwarf

I had a hamster when I was younger...it was the fecking devil in an exercise wheel...

I had a hamster too when i was younger. But my sister stood on it!!!

When I was a kid my hamster escaped from it's cage during the night, got to the bathroom on the other side of the house, crawled her way under the bath then somehow (I still have no idea how!) she got stuck into the wall cavity...for four days all we could hear was scratching!

Bless her, she didn't last much longer after we got out...

PostgradForum Team, can we see the giant snail? I really like snails...they're very cute.

I *quite* like 'normal' european snails but those whopping great things give me the creeps big time (especially since reading that you are not supposed to pick them up by the shell, I'd have to use a spatula (with a very long handle) to pick them up by the foot, eughhhhhhhh!!).