A mum and son travelled five hours by train to release their new friend back into the wild.
But this was not a fluffy or cuddly creature, it was a crab - who was affectionately named Gary.
The crustacean was found by 12-year-old Arthur in a public toilet in Birmingham Market on Wednesday February 9.
Despite being told by a stall owner that the crab would be "dead in hours," Arthur's mum Melanie Moon decided to take him back to her home in Coventry.
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![Gary enjoying his makeshift enclosure](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article23155926.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/2_IMG_5012JPGjpgry-e.jpg)
She cleared out a salad draw and made him a little habitat with sand and salt water - and the little critter went from strength to strength.
"Arthur is autistic and doesn't like crowds so we had been working on getting him out a bit more," Melanie said.
The 46-year-old added: "We were planning on going to the Think Tank in Birmingham and I thought I'd pop in to the rag market to pick up some bread.
"Arthur then needed the toilet and went into the baby changing area by mistake. He came out and I've never seen him so excitable! He grabbed my arm and made me go and have a look.
"There was a little crab legging it around the room and then he tried to hide in the corner.
"I thought, what should we do? He was smaller than my hand - and we decided to take him home.
![Gary the crab](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article23155915.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_IMG_5011JPGjpgy-the.jpg)
"We went to a seafood stall and asked a woman for a pot but she said there was no point and he would die in hours.
"I thought better to die in our home then in a toilet at the market. I popped him in a pot then in my bag and went around the Think Tank."
After taking him home, Melanie made Gary the crab his very own habitat in a salad drawer.
"I thought, 'I know, I'll get the salad drawer out of the fridge'," she said. "I got sand from a bag in the garden in the bottom and then salted some water.
"After some googling I found out they will eat anything so I gave him some fruit. I found that his favourite things were tomatoes and strawberries.
"We think he was a shore crab which meant that he would have been caught in the wild rather than farmed."
![Melanie bought around 80 other crabs to release](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article23155930.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_IMG_5006JPGjpganie-bought.jpg)
Melanie told BlackCountryLive: "A few days later he was still alive and well and would watch me when I talked to him, he got quite used to me.
"He most definitely wasn't dying - he had a real will to survive. He had clearly escaped from the live food stall and had it about him enough to leg it off."
Knowing she couldn't keep him in a box, Melanie decided to take Gary to the coast and release him back into the sea.
But that wasn't enough - touched by his story, she decided to buy more crabs on her way down south and release them too.
She estimates that she bought 60-80 small crabs from the market, alongside two larger ones.
Remarkably, they set her back just £16. She was told that small crabs are often used for stock, as there is little meat on them - making them very cheap.
![Melanie released the crabs back into the sea](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article23155919.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_IMG_5009JPG.jpg)
"I read that they weren't solitary creatures so wanted to get some more," she said. "I bought two big buckets and filled them with sand and salty water - we had to change trains in Birmingham so stopped off at the market."
Melanie and Arthur made the journey down to Devon to release the crabs after kind-hearted friends and strangers raised over £200 for the journey via a GoFundMe page.
She then discovered the landlord at the pub they were staying in by the coast was also called Gary - a nice coincidence in their unusual tale...or claw.
Melanie, who had only just recovered after being hospitalised with Covid, was reduced to tears when she released the animals back into the sea.
She said: "It took them a while to get them going - I think they had been frozen to subdue them.
"By the time we released the 'Garys' - it was quite dark. It was so exciting when we let them all go - it actually made me cry."
You can view the GoFundMe page here.
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