I love turtles. When I was in third grade, before we were afraid of all the germs, I had a pet turtle. It was very popular to own them in those days. That particular turtle had his shell painted with Jack Benny's name on it. I don't remember whatever happened to him.
When I started teaching, I didn't have a turtle in my classroom, but my roommate and I had a pair for pets. We went away one weekend, or maybe it was longer, and we left them with a friend of ours. I'm sure they would have survived o.k. by themselves, but when we returned and they heard our voices, they just about crawled out of the bowl.
Recently in the news I read about the golden retriever who swallowed the pet turtle, and the turtle survived. When the family realized what had happened, they took the dog to the vet, and the turtle was removed, alive. His shell was a little bit damaged, but none the worse for the wear. I'm not sure about the dog. I'll bet he had a sore throat.
8 comments:
I had all kinds of animals as pets growing up but never a turtle. Like you growing up in Florida there were always turtles around. My childhood friend who lived across the street always managed to keep turtles. It's funny but even to this day she has turtles.
Love the turtle poem! I can remember that one from schooldays!
I too had many little turtles as pets when I was young. I loved the little guys. :-)
I remember when people had turtles as pets, but I never had one. My mother-in-law had a turtle years ago, and she decided to get another one so that one could have company. She was surprised one day when she found them mating - and she got rid of the newer one because she didn't want "that kind of carrying on" in her house. Seriously.
One of our dogs is the champion box turtle finder. She has single handedly diversified the turtle population of our farm as she will carry one far from where it was plodding. Then wherever she plops it, it gets to find a new mate.
I've read stories of training dogs for this, but Allie comes by it naturally. If she could only make us some money! We've thought of marking the ones she catches to see if they turn up again, but haven't had the forethought to actually take a marker with us on our walks. She has a very soft mouth and never hurts them, though we have to turn them upright often after she deposits them. Actually, T turns them over, as I am squeamish.
Here's a story about turtle sniffing dogs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901609.html
Funny that you wrote this about turtles , one of my grandkids called me turtle one day !That is since I can't get around very fast since my disability 4 years ago ! Have a good day! Ron.
never had a turtle...cute poem...I may have to share that with the grandkids!
:-D
I have some pictures of turtles in NYC of all places... OK they were at the botanical garden and in Prospect Park.
In Mississippi, we stopped often to let the large turtles cross the road to the pond. They were always amazing to see.
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