The Turtle

So for Father's Day I got Chris a turtle. Chris has always thought of turtles as neat animals and I knew it would be a hit with him. What I didn't know was that the whole family would fall for the critter. (either that or we are really hard up for a dog) So just before Father's Day the quest for a turtle began. First I tried to get a 4th grade teacher to give me her class turtle. At first she was good with it but then told me I had to bring it back for school next year. So since Ms. S turned out to be a raging Indian Giver I had to come up with another plan.

I went turtle hunting. Just a few days before I had seen a just hatched baby turtle in a stream while hiking along Lake Rim. I just figured I would hike back in, have a look around and viola instant pet. Nope. I went in twice as far as the last trip and searched several streams and the banks of the river and no turtle. After doing a run and jump to get over a muddy stream I noticed a pine tree along the trail. A section of bark had been ripped off and just a few feet past it in the soft sand was a bear print. I held my scream on the inside and almost peed myself. I made a hasty leap back over the water and started my retreat. Then suddenly out of the blue my cell phone chimed to this, "I can text now, did you hear that Richard has been chosen for the ALL Stars team? Today is national donut day per dad". Yup my mother texted me while I was trying to retreat from man eating bears. So then it was onto plan D. (don't ask about C)

That left me with buying one and I had to go to South Carolina to do that. First I tried to just drive in and stop at the first pet shop I saw. After an hour of no shops I decided to pull into Barefoot Landing and ask around. Barefoot Landing does have "info huts" but they only tell you about the shops in Barefoot Landing. They refuse to say anything else. So I let the girls stroll along a walk way while I sat on a bench to work 411 on my cellphone. I didn't get far until Laney started shouting about a turtle. Lo and behold a giant turtle was floating in the water with several fish begging for food. I had to cough up about two bucks in quarters for the girls to feed the critters. I was so ticked off that the thing I wanted was right in front of me but I couldn't have it.

Eventually we found a PetSmart and bought a turtle. Chris was very pleased with it and well I don't think he would have survived if he didn't.

We named the turtle JT for Just Turtle. Laney keeps calling it TJ for TURTLE JUSTICE. The girls also take the turtle out for a walk in the front yard about every other day. I took it into the vet's office CJ use to work for to get it a check up. The vet said the turtle is a female, to try feeding it more veggies, and that it was a very healthy turtle. Thank goodness because I don't think I can handle another traumatic pet death. You can only deal with that drama so often with your kids.

The most interesting part is that JT begs for food and seems to like messing with me. I have tried to feed it all kinds of veggies and sometimes it will taste them but wind up spitting them back out. She then drags the veggies up under her rocks like a little kid hiding its broccoli under a napkin. Even the turtle wants to make me crazy.