" Slow and steady wins the race"

~ Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC)
The Hare and the Tortoise










Remmy Cecil the Turtle from Bugs Bunny? Well guess who now possesses 2 baby red eared slider turtles? Yep, me. I don't know what possessed me but on a whim I brought them last Friday afternoon. I was at the bus stop on 125th and Lennox Ave waiting for a bus going west when I saw this older Asian women pulling out small little cages with 2 turtles in each cage. I was suppose to go to an appt but I felt crappy that day and asked the lady how much? She indicates to me $10 with both hands representing $5 each, because I couldn't understand her accent and pointed to my ears that I am deaf. I nodded I understood the price but walked back to the bus waiting section of the bus stand. She was set up behind the bus stand. The bus arrived and I found myself walking back behind to where she was and handed her a tenner. Next she sells me $2 pellets (turtle food). I scrape enough quarters and do that. I immediately turn around and walk home. I went to the bedroom and took one out at a time and let them walk on my hands while immediately using google to find out what did I get myself into?

I immediately realized that the old standing myth that turtles or reptiles/amphibians are NOT cold blooded creatures. That they actually require several things such as a water heater, heating lamp and rock for them to bask on and an UV lamp plus a water filter, ay yi yi. So Saturday even tho it was a miserable day and that was the same day that things blew up between Szymanski and I for good, we visited Eddie to get a new lock that he had on hand as a spare. Since the robbery we figured best to replace the front door lock. Lucky for me Virgie was there and she happened to grow up with turtles. She gave me a LOT of valuable advice on what to do and what to buy. It was great, what are the odds I would run into someone the very next day who used to own turtles??? Anyhoo after we finished our visit, we went to the pet store where a Kevin Smith look-a-like whizzed around the store gathering up the necessary but minimal supplies that I needed to get my turtles in a rocking space. I still have left to buy a water heater and the UV lamp. I am using a heating pad with a towel as a buffer between the tank and the pad itself and so far it has kept the water at room temperature. The turtles LOVED the heating lamp. The reason why they are called "sliders" are because whenever they see you, they immediately slide off the basking rock into the water. They are both currently in love with the water filter. Often I find one or both squeezed in between the filter and the tank wall. Maybe the humming it produces or the fact that it is warm has made it quite attractive to them both. Also the basking rock I brought has room for them to crawl under to "hide" as well.

I read that the baby turtles should NOT be handled a lot during the first several weeks because it causes them stress. So since I brought the tank on Saturday, they have been hands free. Funny when we first set up the tank, Jack and I made sure the water level wasn't too high in case they had never swam before. And it looked like they hadn't because they fluttered the first few times. We would "help" them and put them on the heated rock but they replied no thanks, we wanna SWIM! And immediately slid right back into the water. It was cute to see them standing on their tippy toes. Head just above water.

The major issue I have had so far is what exactly to feed them, how much to feed them and are they feeling ok? Sometimes I will perch myself quietly next to their tank, not moving so they will relax and swim around. I find myself "peeking" at them when I am in the kitchen which is adjacent to the living room but has a small wall to separate and I spy whenever I can.

I can tell the difference between the 2 turtles but the sex of the turtle I am still not sure of. I believe I have a set of each gender. What I didn't know was when they are fully grown, they can grow to be about 10 inches wide! Especially the females which are usually bigger than the males. Imagine dinner plate size turtles in a few years?! Plus I read they are very aggressive and if I find them nipping at the heel of another, I will have to separate them. I also don't want them to breed. I am hoping when the time comes to separate them that I can convince my nephew Bobby who's crazy about animals and biology to adopt one of my turtles down the road. Hint hint Nancy & David. I would of course supply the needed equipment for Bobby to take care of the turtle and he would only have to worry about food (which luckily isn't that expensive) and as they age they go from being carnivorous to herbivorous. Which means that 75% of their meals should be leafy veggies. Right now I am feeding them dried krills, shrimps and turtle pellets.

I admit I am overwhelmed at the possibility of how big they will grow to be. I am afraid of turtles that big currently. I am hoping because I will get to see them grow and hopefully bond with Morticia and Gomez which I have currently named them until I know their sex for sure. This is also something that I want Jack and I do for Halloween one year. That the size won't scare me then? Also I will by the time they are fully grown need a LARGE tank. And I live in NYC, so unless I move to a bigger apt or find a way to arrange the furniture just right I might be in trouble. Another question I wondered about is, I am a cat lover and what if Jack and I get a cat. Can a cat and a turtle live together? Would a cat cause my turtle(s) undue stress? Its so weird because never in my entire life would I thought of being someone who has a turtle. I mean I have had all kinds of pets, cats, dogs, ferrets (which I didn't enjoy cuz they stink literally), rabbit (I also didn't enjoy, cuz they poop non-stop! and this particular rabbit was the same one my Mom used to stick under the covers in the mornings to wake me up and it would bite me, I hated that rabbit!). My former roommie had the gerbil/hamster which I enjoyed taking care of it until it died. I have never wanted a bird for a pet, boring if you ask me. My friend Mark Cole had an iguana (I wonder if he still does?) which was pretty cool. He built a kick-ass cage for it too. So here I am a proud new turtle(s) momma.

Apparently this guy is the Turtle Guru or marine life specialist so if you want to know more about them, click on and read.

Tonight after my 2nd job, Jack and I head to PA for the weekend. I absolutely cannot wait to see my family!

Tmw night we will go to Jason Woods for I think a haunted hayride unless the weather is bad such as rain but so far they are predicting clear skies, in the 40s. My biggest fear is I will pee my pants. I don't know why that is, when someone gets scared they wet their pants? Apparently it has to do with the "fight/flight" response and one of the symptoms is empty the bladder. I better buy some depends then ;) I already half joked and half seriously told Jack that I am bringing a extra pair of pants and undies tmw night. I was a bed-wetter till I was 12. It wasn't anything I had any control over. Growing up my Mom would have to wake me up several times a night to make sure I went to the bathroom and even then there was no guarantees. Thank god for plastic mattress covers. I am glad I outgrew it but I always remind people who know of a kid that wets their bed that I too had that problem and NO they are not doing it on purpose. No kid in their right mind would. Since then I have only peed my pants on a few occasions, usually its because I am laughing so hard for too long that its bye bye, pee away!

Once when I was like 15 or 16, I was in DC with a friend name Jamie Palmer and her boyfriend Ron and we were I think in the park where the capitol is. And I vaguely remember being hoisted onto his neck and being spun around, laughing so hard that I peed all over his shoulder! You bet he put me down right away and lucky for me he was a good sport about it but boy was I embarrassed. When we returned to MSSD dorm, I had borrowed his jacket and had it tied around my waist so no one would noticed. I guess Jamie never told anyone because I was never teased for it.

Then the other time I peed my pants was the last time I went to Jason Woods (video link) like 6 or 7 years ago with my friend Blondie, Zee and Hildur and maybe Knob too? Blondie and Hildur were not scared and seem unimpressed but Zee and I clung to each other for dear life and we BOTH wet ourselves more than once. So you might be wondering why the heck would I go back to Jason Woods? Well I want to show Jack one of the cooler things about Halloween in PA, Jason Woods has been in business for 23 years! And 2ndly, I KNOW I will be protected by him. He won't mind me clinging to him. My ex and I went to a "haunted house" at Gally once and he got annoyed with me everytime I grabbed a hold of him and buried my face into his back so he could lead me. At one point I got so scared that I fell backwards, knocking down the dividers of this haunted maze that was set up at the Ely Center. You should seen the look on the faces of the students running the haunted event, they were so surprised that I knocked down part of the maze. At the end we had to crawl through this tunnel and I almost couldn't do it, it took every bit of courage to just finish the damn thing. I am sure Knob remembers this :-)

I will be sure to snap some pictures while we're there at Jason Woods if its permitted and the Greek Bazaar too. And I hope to also take some videos of my turtles next week, after I've cleaned the tank so you can meet them too.