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Monday, July 16, 2018
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Turtles & tortoises have personalities?
I didn’t grow up with animals. We had one dog, Tippy, growing up, but that was all. We were pretty much suburban small-ish city kids. After my husband and I got married I bugged him until we got a dog. She was a rescue. A naughty rescue. But we liked her and learned about Cairn terriers. A bit.
After we had to put her down when she had liver failure, we bought a black lab puppy. Remember my bio? Slightly idealistic? Well, I’m a little more than slightly. I imagined a gentle, calm, sweet black lab milling around with my children as we happily homeschooled among the daisies and butterflies. The reality was that I was too busy and too tired to read up on how to train a puppy so she was a bit unruly. For four years.
We loved her for seven years and tried to take care of her Addison’s disease for two of her last years. We had to make the hard decision to put her down when the meds just weren’t working. I’d like to say I was the perfect mother for my youngest child who adored Olivia, but I broke down and couldn’t take her in to be put to sleep. My dear husband did it for me with our daughter in tow.
After several years we took in a stubborn, yappy pug. We loved Max, but he needed and wanted his people to be home more often doting on his every whim. A good friend connected us with a lovely woman who treats him like the prince he thinks he is. And I’m so happy for him.
So what about the reptiles? I’ve been involved in Place-based Ecology Education for several years and teach elementary school kids. I heard of some box turtles who needed a foster home. Of course I volunteered. Carol introduced me to three teaching turtles who I called Gulf, Three-toe, and Ornate named after their particular sub-species. (Carol let me know since they are teaching turtles they were not named. She is a wise science teacher as you will see later.)
I learned that turtles do indeed have personalities. Gulf is shy and doesn’t want to be bothered. Three-toe is between 90-110 years old so she just wants to be left alone to eat her favorite food, worms. Ornate was sweet and friendly. She used to follow me around the classroom after the kids were gone for the day. I remember one time she actually walked towards me and looked up at me.
One year I decided to hatch chicks in the classroom. It was my first experience with chicks, never mind incubating eggs. It was a lot of work. It was too much heartache. Not all of them chicks made it.
One morning I walked into the classroom and I saw Ornate next to the sliding glass door of the aquarium. She looked horrible. Her head, eyes, and legs were twice the size they normally were. I looked at her and went to get the custodian who is an animal person down to his bones. When I got back with him, she had her eyes closed. She died. I know it sounds crazy, but I think she was waiting for me that morning before she died. I was so overcome thinking about the chicks and how I could have done a better job taking care of them and now here was Ornate who was obviously sick. Did I do something wrong? I was sobbing when my teaching homie walked into the room. It was difficult to explain why I was so upset over a turtle.
This year another daughter gave me her Russian tortoise, Sherbie. Her personality is similar to Ornate’s except Sherbie is sassier than Ornate. One day she was sitting on top of the half log in her terrarium looking up at me. It doesn’t sound like much, but to me, I get to love a tortoise who reminds me of Ornate.
Yesterday my husband found a frog on the cover of our swimming pool. Now we have an amphibian! Who’s as blessed as we are?
After we had to put her down when she had liver failure, we bought a black lab puppy. Remember my bio? Slightly idealistic? Well, I’m a little more than slightly. I imagined a gentle, calm, sweet black lab milling around with my children as we happily homeschooled among the daisies and butterflies. The reality was that I was too busy and too tired to read up on how to train a puppy so she was a bit unruly. For four years.
We loved her for seven years and tried to take care of her Addison’s disease for two of her last years. We had to make the hard decision to put her down when the meds just weren’t working. I’d like to say I was the perfect mother for my youngest child who adored Olivia, but I broke down and couldn’t take her in to be put to sleep. My dear husband did it for me with our daughter in tow.
After several years we took in a stubborn, yappy pug. We loved Max, but he needed and wanted his people to be home more often doting on his every whim. A good friend connected us with a lovely woman who treats him like the prince he thinks he is. And I’m so happy for him.
So what about the reptiles? I’ve been involved in Place-based Ecology Education for several years and teach elementary school kids. I heard of some box turtles who needed a foster home. Of course I volunteered. Carol introduced me to three teaching turtles who I called Gulf, Three-toe, and Ornate named after their particular sub-species. (Carol let me know since they are teaching turtles they were not named. She is a wise science teacher as you will see later.)
I learned that turtles do indeed have personalities. Gulf is shy and doesn’t want to be bothered. Three-toe is between 90-110 years old so she just wants to be left alone to eat her favorite food, worms. Ornate was sweet and friendly. She used to follow me around the classroom after the kids were gone for the day. I remember one time she actually walked towards me and looked up at me.
One year I decided to hatch chicks in the classroom. It was my first experience with chicks, never mind incubating eggs. It was a lot of work. It was too much heartache. Not all of them chicks made it.
One morning I walked into the classroom and I saw Ornate next to the sliding glass door of the aquarium. She looked horrible. Her head, eyes, and legs were twice the size they normally were. I looked at her and went to get the custodian who is an animal person down to his bones. When I got back with him, she had her eyes closed. She died. I know it sounds crazy, but I think she was waiting for me that morning before she died. I was so overcome thinking about the chicks and how I could have done a better job taking care of them and now here was Ornate who was obviously sick. Did I do something wrong? I was sobbing when my teaching homie walked into the room. It was difficult to explain why I was so upset over a turtle.
This year another daughter gave me her Russian tortoise, Sherbie. Her personality is similar to Ornate’s except Sherbie is sassier than Ornate. One day she was sitting on top of the half log in her terrarium looking up at me. It doesn’t sound like much, but to me, I get to love a tortoise who reminds me of Ornate.
Yesterday my husband found a frog on the cover of our swimming pool. Now we have an amphibian! Who’s as blessed as we are?
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