Turtle Tales

Cadie is not my only pet. I also have a nice little turtle named Uter. Uter, according to my youngest brother, is a Mississippi Map turtle, you can read all about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Map_Turtle .

My brother has a lot of turtles as pets, but Uter just never fit. Apparently Uter has very serious psychological issues. My brother has I think 4 or 5, a giant one, named Johnny Cakes, and 3 or 4 other smaller, and younger ones. Uter lived with the smaller and younger ones, but he never really fit in. He would freak out frequently. And by freak out I mean that he would try to jump out of the tank, swim out of the tank, and when that didn’t work he would bite the other turtles, which meant that my brother had to find a new home for him.

Instead of posting him for sale on Craig’s List, I took ownership of poor little Uter. Since then he has grown fat, and has had to adapt to living with a dog. For the most part Cadie ignores him, and he ignores her. It’s a bigger problem when we have dog friends over, they are fascinated by this little moving thing in the corner.

It’s funny though how quickly these animals can grow on you. It’s easy to look at a dog like Cadie and fall in love. She’s fluffy, with nice soft fur, and such full cheeks, and a very sweet expression that just wins you over. Uter is the polar opposite. He’s cold and wet, and hides whenever you come in a room. He seems to hate being at my place, though that seems to have improved as we continue to build up his tank. Everything being equal, I have to tell you that I looked at little Uter tonight and discovered that I love him, you know in the appropriate owner/pet kind of way. I like to think that Uter has become, if not fond of me, than at least less scared of me. He now comes over to the side of the tank, and floats next to me while I’m putting my boots on. And he doesn’t swim so far away from me when I walk over to the tank. I think too, that he is even starting to get used to Cadie. Tonight she went looking for him. Not for long though, it still makes me nervous to see a dog hovering around his tank.