The Turtle Invasion

Poor Uter, she reminds me so much of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I mean, just look at that worried face, and this picture was taken before the other turtles arrived.

Turtles, you may or may not know have very specific environmental requirements. Obviously they need a tank, but they also need a basking rock or log and basking light, and finally they need food. They don't really need love, but they do need their owners to keep them on a schedule.

My brother, who is moving out of his apartment tomorrow, but not into the new apartment until Saturday, came over last night with his two turtles and we started a game of musical tanks. Uter has been removed from her tank, and has lost her basking bulb. Today she will have to make do with a regular 60 watt, which will give the illusion of sun, if not the benefits of an actual basking bulb. This is unfortunate but necessary, as I was afraid that putting a basking bulb in the only lamp I had left could cause a fire.

Johnny Cakes, I know he's named after some sort of food, but I don't spend enough time in the states to know what that food thing is, or if he looks like one. He has always made me think of a hamburger,or a Dagwood Sandwich. This picture isn't the best, but I can tell you that he is easily 3 times bigger than Uter. As such he had to be given the biggest tank. Poor Johnny Cakes, he's such an easy going turtle, but last night he was headed for a meltdown, too much change, and now to have to spend the day with a dog (he's not used to dogs). I started to worry so I sent Uncle Tim a text message and he told me that if Johnny Cakes doesn't settle down I should sing to him, apparently his favourite song is "Let it Be". It's funny, who knew that turtles were so sensitive.

Bender is another story. Because Bender is very close in size to Uter it was a bit of a toss up as to which one would be given the medium size tank. However, we had some set up work to do so I told Uncle Tim to put them both in the medium tank until we had the chance to get the 10 gallon set up. So he did, and luckily he was standing there fiddling with some cords because it wasn't two minutes from the time we put Bender in until she climbed on top of my poor Uter. I'm sorry, but I will not tolerate that kind of behaviour in my home...not even from turtles who can't be expected to know better. So that decided the issue, Bender, who should be named "tiger", was given the smallest tank.

Bender is by far the most adaptable of the lot. Predictably Uter started freaking out. I didn't worry too much about that since Uter freaks out about going to her feeding bucket. Johnny Cakes was freaking out as I said already, and Cadie didn't know what to make of the whole thing, she just wandered from room to room sniffing, trying to figure out what was going on. At one point she stopped in front of the big tank and seemed shocked to find there was a giant turtle in there, but then, I like to think that she recognized Johnny Cakes' distress because she turned around and came back to the living room. At the same time Bender was just hanging out on her basking log.

This morning everything is better. All the turtles are settled, though only Uter and Cadie (the dog) ate, at least I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to get by until Saturday

Queasy Feelings

I woke up today feeling terrible. Not totally surprising since I dragged myself to bed last night, rolled over on my stomach and vowed not to move until the cramping past. It didn’t, and when I woke up this morning I also had a pounding head ache. I may never know if I had a migraine or food poisoning matched with a head ache and frankly I don’t care. I spent a couple of extra hours in bed, and tried to do as little as possible this morning. It’s always when you’re sick that you discover that you’ve let things slide. I was hungry and looking forward to lunch until I went to my kitchen, and like Mother Hubbard, discovered that my cupboards were bear. So once the abdominal cramping past I headed out to the grocery store. Not the way I had hoped to spend my Friday. Things at work aren’t good for me right now, so missing a day, especially calling in sick on a Friday, is not something that I really wanted to do.


The weather was fabulous. I know some people might say that it was too cold, and yes, it was cold, but I love the cold, and the sun, so the weather today was perfect for me, and for Cadie. After a good a meal and another short rest Cadie and I did head out to the park. It was good, she needed to blow off some steam, and I would have felt guilty had she not been able to enjoy some of it. If you get sick, you still have to find a way to look after them, and find a way to manage their energy is a way that works for both you and them. Otherwise, Cadie and I don’t have any trouble.





I love watching Cadie play fetch. She runs so quickly, but I noticed today that she still has a lot of puppiness to her, and I like to indulge that, especially in the park. Much to my surprise and delight, she came home from the park, exhausted, and has been sleeping in her chair ever since. The drop in energy was so striking that, for a while anyhow, I though there might be something wrong with her. That’s one of the problems with being the sole care giver to an animal or anyone for that matter.

I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, when I came and sat down to write I looked over and Uter seemed to be doing something odd. He just didn’t seem too active for lack of a better word. Now a reasonable person would conclude that Uter was simply resting. As my previous entries have shown Uter tends to doze at this time of night, so it was more likely that he was sleeping, but I had to reach in there and grab him. I really made a mess of it. Uter is now have a freak out, and is frantically trying to swim out of the tank. I need to learn to leave well enough alone.

Anyhow, I am starting to feel a little better, so I’m going to go and do some dishes before bed.