my giant earthworm...

I found a giant earthworm near our house the other day...

It was about 7 inches in length and 3/4 of an inch in diameter! WOW!

I have never seen an earthworm that big!

at first I just thought of leaving it out there on the street and let nature decide it's fate. - to be eaten by birds or be a plaything for the cats that roamed nearby.
But, it was midday. It was the searing heat of the cement caused by the sun that's going to kill it. The poor thing was twitching and wiggling as it is being sizzled alive. I couldn't stand the sight of that amazing freak of nature as it lay dying there. I felt sorry for it. So I got a jar and placed the worm in it...and showed it off to my family. They had different reactions. My grandma was amazed, my mom kinda grossed out, our maid not grossed out but sorta kinda scared, and my dad the usual no-reaction-emotion-face. Too bad my 'lil sis was at school. She wasn't able to see the whole thing. By the time she got home, I had already put garden soil and dry leaves inside the jar to keep it alive. I was thinking of putting it in a jar filled with chloroform to preserve it but that would be killing it. So I decided to take care of it until it grows old and dies naturally and then preserve it. That way, I could give it a chance to grow bigger.

I also thought of just letting it live naturally in our garden but I got scared and paranoid. I thought what if it is a mutation of some sort or what if it is really some alien parasitic slug waiting for the right time to ambush us and take over our bodies. Yeah, I know. My imagination got the best of me. But hey, better safe than sorry. I also know that taking care of it in a jar would really make a difference if it was really an alien or a mutant, but it gave me comfort and peace of mind.

I was about to take pictures of it this morning( so I could document it, and yes, blog it.). But I found the jar filled with maggots. It was already dead and rotting. I may have been dead since yesterday. I wasn't really able to check if it was still alive yesterday. I got home late and it was already dark. And it was a hassle to remove the all soil and put it all back in. I decided to do it today. But now it was dead. And because it was already rotting and maggot infested, I wasn't able to at least get a photo of it.

*sigh* Too bad...
I really wanted to know why it grew so big...