The Horseshoe Crab Incident

In the mid 70's my mother's friend Barbara left a horseshoe crab in our yard. She had painted it's shell with flowers and Happy Mother's Day. My brother and I were very frightened of it. Dad took it to the river near our house. Another scary incident involving this nasty looking creature was when I almost stepped on one in the ocean- I forget which beach we were at. Maybe Seaside. That was in the early 80's.