Thursday, June 28, 2007
About noon today I was outside messing around in the garden after putting some kitchen scraps on the compost. With the container in hand, I went around to the path adjacent to our house and thought, "We need to find someone to watch our turtles while we are in Okinawa next week." We had two turtles named Therm, a larger one, and Spot, the smaller one. They were both in their black turtle container and left outside overnight. The previous night they were left there also.
However, as I approached the deck where the container was, I discovered Therm's shell upside down on the deck, outside the tank, and it was totally empty. Only the hind legs were left and parts of the shell were scattered about. Some cat must have gotten it. I said, "oh, no!" because it was my turtle.
Usually the girls tend to them every morning either feeding or cleaning the tank, but today they did not. It was a good thing, because they would have totally lost it. I was shaken at the thought myself. :-(
Knowing the girls would react very emotionally to this, I scooped up the shell with a dipper into the scrap container I was holding; got a shovel and went to the back slope and buried it under a tree.
Last July we buried Myrtle Turtle who was 5 years old and died an accidental death by being overheated. Teresa cried for hours over that one.
There was no sign of the little turtle named Spot. My guess is it was taken away because it was small. It could have been done by one of the crows, but I did not see any evidence of a crow about. My guess is the cat.
I told Henry about it. After lunch we told the kids and Sara was really sad because Spot was her turtle and she prayed all the time for it to grow and live a long time.
So when one is sad over a tragedy, the best thing to do is go shopping! So we girls went to the local mall and bought presents for a birthday party on Saturday.
