By William
Tom, over a phone conversation while I was out in my garage cleaning the many
tanks I have included in my daily list of things to do, asked me if I would be
interested in starting off a new addition to Austin's Turtle Page, so this is my
way of expressing bits and pieces of the beginning of 46 years of what I will
refer to as the turtle obsession.
At some point many of us have wandered into a pet shop, visited a zoo or were
presented a gift, even found one crossing a highway or on the end of a fishing
line and come across the turtle. For many this was the beginning of an almost
unexplainable and quite unforeseen glimpse into what was to become a life long
interest. The turtle, a four-legged self contained armored curiosity going about
its business that it has done for millions of years and was capable and willing
to do so with no help from you and me.
So it begins, you found the turtle or the turtle found you, you are now faced
with a decision, what am I going to do, where will I keep it and what does it
eat, this gets the wheels turning and anything and everything that is lying
about the house that mom or dad is not going to miss is sorted through until the
ultimate home is found, mine was the turkey basting base, it was deep and large
and it would be at least a year before it would be missed and by then anything
could have happened to it and anyone in the family was a prime suspect. Now for
the decor, I know the ones at the pond sat on a rock in the sun so this was
quite simple and the water was there even the lamp to simulate the sun, the lamp
that I recall in the attic will do just fine. Since mine was a gift the problem
of finding a suitable place to hide it was not an issue, this is something that
you develop an art form for later on in life when your better half is not quite
as thrilled about the shelled creature as you. The last and final and one of the
most important aspects is, what does it eat and where will I find a steady
source, there are no books that I can find and the dime store has the same box
of dried bugs as the one that came with the turtle, I would no sooner eat it and
the turtle had about as much interest as me, I knew fish ate worms and bugs so
why not a turtle, this was simple enough and soon I had an assortment of jumping
and wiggling, chirping and flying bugs or all sorts and sizes, tossed some in
and let the little brown turtle take his pick. I soon discovered that there were
some things like moths that must have tasted like the holiday fruitcake and were
tasted and then avoided like the plague and others that the turtle seemed to
know were as good as the dessert that was not to be touched until the dinner
plate was clean. So the turtle and I had from the start a lot in common, we were
both picky eaters and there were certain things that we were not going to eat no
matter what the consequence.
I learned and he taught, this is the way it is with the turtle, since I lived
in Chicago and never saw turtles in the snow, I had an idea that they were not
to thrilled with the cold, so the heating pad and the lamp seemed to keep him
happy and at this point I had no idea such great inventions as the aquarium
heater existed. He didn’t mind and I didn’t know, we faced a new problem, cold
and snow no bugs. Now it became apparent that a new food source had to be found,
so it was off to the kitchen into forbidden territory when all were asleep, the
search was on, it turned out that shrimp and some of the fish that seemed to
find a permanent home in the freezer were acceptable to my friend, these were
things that I knew the rest of my family would never miss and even a box on
goldfish food was enjoyed that was donated by a neighbor. My friend the brown
turtle and I made it through the long winter.
When it became time to move back to the sunshine state and all was packed up
and ready to go, you see the family decided the winters were to harsh, my last
stop was to pick up my little friend and hop in the car, he was nowhere to be
found, I looked and looked and finally the question was asked, where is my
turtle, I was told he ran away and there is no time left to look for him, you
will get another one someday. Needless to say I had lost my best friend, the one
that was always there, and the one who never complained.
So this folks was the beginning of what was to become a lifelong passion, to
learn more from the turtle and this never ends. Yes you will make mistakes and
yes there will be sad times and yes you will learn to make the very best home
for your new friend and still to this day, I owe a lot to the turtle, my very
best friend.