Sunday of Sadness

After eight years as part of our "family," we had to give one of our female turtles away yesterday. Her name is Dot.

My wife and I had gone to Main Street, Flushing looking for baby turtles to keep her lone turtle Roxy and mine, Snappy, company. Little did we know when we walked into the fish market that we'd be overwhelmed by the sight of red eared slider hatchlings.

There was a bucket of them, and they were the size of quarters. My wife chose two, and I chose two. Her's were almost bluish in color, while one of mine was like mustard.

The two she picked were to be named "Dot" and "Stripe" due to markings on their shells. Stripe was always shy and good natured, while Dot was a trouble maker. She was always going around nipping the other turtles in the tank.

That was eight years ago, and she continued to display bad behavior. Last October, Dot injured our Diamondback Terrapin, Dante, so badly that he nearly died. It took more than six months for Dante to be considered in good health and no longer in danger from his wounds and infection.

That was the last straw. We decided that we cannot allow this to go on. We tried separating Dot. Tried drying her out. Even tried playing with more, as that sometimes make s a turtle more docile. But when we put Dante in the same tank as Dot, Dot would bite Dante again. This appeared to be a behavior that Dot can never adjust.

So yesterday we gave Dot to a boy we know. He's a good kid named John. John loves animals, so this should be good. We set him up with about a complete setup, or more than enough to get him started. Last night at about 8:30 we helped him load her equipment into the car, and they drove off. Dot was so cute. She was looking out the window, watching us. If you think I'm crazy, I'm not. I've had turtles for nearly ten years and I KNOW what they are looking at. I think something came to her at that moment, that she was going away from her Mommy and Daddy for the first time ever with different people. Turtles DO recognize people.

We may never see her again, and I miss her already. She was the rambunctious one, always making the noises in the tank. Splashing. Up to mischief. There were so many things that made her a delightful pet, why couldn't she learn not to bite the others? Why did she bring this on ALL of us? My little baby is gone.