Slug Slime

So I was out feeding the slugs this morning...  Whaaat?  No, I don't normally feed the slugs, although sometimes I sprinkle a little cat food close to the edge of the patio in the evening so they eat those pieces and don't slime the cat food I actually put out for the cats.  Normally slugs are nocturnal, but this morning was humid and cloudy so when I went out to get the dish for the canned food I fed the stray cats I saw a big slug in the dry cat food dish.  I picked it up and put it closer to the garden and gave it a couple of pieces of dry food so it wouldn't end up in the dish again.

(I can attest that they really are slimy!  And you can't wash it off.  I kept trying to rinse the slime off my fingers and the water just kept it slimy.  I finally used a DRY paper towel and got it off that way.)  I happened to glance around and saw not one but three slugs braving the daylight.  The first slug ignored the dry cat food and started toward the garden.  I guess after being picked up and moved from the cat food dish it decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge.  It actually played dead for the first few minutes after I moved it.  I gave it a small scrap of canned cat food that was still in the dish I had come out to get.  It picked it up and/or ate it and headed back to the garden.

It seemed a lot fatter and shorter when it was in the cat food dish, but stretched out at full length it was pretty impressive at about four inches.

Here's a picture of one of the other slugs with its slime trail.

I was worried about these guys because the sun was starting to come out so I broke another piece of dry cat food into several pieces to make it easier for them to eat.  They both went for the smaller piece and found their way back to the garden just in time.  You can clearly see its little antennae in this picture.

You can learn more about slugs in my 'Salute to Slugs' post.