Flash Back... WAY back... Uncle Nathan and Aunt Betty gave Sadie 2 aquatic baby turtles on her birthday in May. They were tiny, just born, about 2 inches big. The kids loved the turtles, Mackenzie would point and talk baby talk every time she saw them on the window at the kitchen sink. It was really cute. I felt bad for the turtles though because they
didn't really like the attention they got from the kids, they would always hide from them, and they needed lots more space to move around and swim than what I could give them on my kitchen
windowsill. They were even sharing some of that space with a little guppy! Oh, and it turns out when those tiny turtles get hungry their little stomach actually can hold a guppy. I never would have thought they would be fast enough or even able to fit a mouth around it since it takes a lot of work for them to eat their tiny pellets we fed them every day. Well, except when we went on vacation. One poor turtle couldn't handle fasting during all our summer outings and passed away during one of them. It was
sooooo sad. The turtles sad little eyes were still open looking at me and it broke my heart. I had to have mercy on the other turtle and let it have a chance to live out in the "wild" so Braden and Mackenzie helped me take it to a new home in the Delta. Sadie was at school, she said her goodbyes to the turtle before she left. Here are pictures from the beginning of September...
I let Braden have the honors of "releasing" it into the "wild".
I kinda thought he would put it into the water and then let go so we could watch it swim away, but he chucked it instead and it fell like a rock to the bottom.
I wonder if it was too deep for it there, or if it did ok. We didn't see it come back up at all.
"Goodbye, turtle"
I also learned something new about Mackenzie on this day. She is EXTREMELY afraid of heights. I let her down so she could walk on this little bridge over the water and she would NOT move. She was afraid of the cracks because she could see down to the water 10 feet or so below.
Mackenzie, frozen and terrified of the cracks. Poor thing. :(
P.S. Mackenzie IS wearing shorts with this shirt, although it doesn't look like it in these pictures for some reason...
8 comments:
Yay! A post! Amber I don't know...I think you guys killed the turtle on the Delta...so much for saving it. Hahaha
P.s. The kids look so big..and cute of course. ;)
This is from Wikipedia:
"Although many turtles spend large amounts of their lives underwater, all turtles and tortoises breathe air, and must surface at regular intervals to refill their lungs. They can also spend much of their lives on dry land. Aquatic respiration in Australian freshwater turtles is currently being studied. Some species have large cloacal cavities that are lined with many finger-like projections. These projections, called papillae, have a rich blood supply, and increase the surface area of the cloaca. The turtles can take up dissolved oxygen from the water using these papillae, in much the same way that fish use gills to respire."
So there's hope the turtle was able to breath underwater for a while...maybe. It's the thought that counts, right?!
i love your new header. your kids are so cute. benny is the same way about the cracks. i can't believe how blonde all the kids hair is. :)
Well, Jason caught a turtle swimming at Lake Shasta in about the same amount of water so I thought it might be ok. It wasn't far from the shore so it could swim to the shore too. The thing that it had against it though is that it was so little and probably not a super swimmer since it had been in a little tank most of its life. :(
How sad! You guys probably REALLY shouldn't get a dog if you forgot to feed the turtle! At least you took pity on the other turtle, whether you killed it and ended its misery or gave it a better life. No one will ever know:)
Im sure the Turtle is fine. I had turtles when I was little and they could hold their breath for a long time. He probably just swam away under water and you lost track of where he was before he surfaced for a breath.
I swear your kids are exactly the same as mine. I don't know if it is just that they are the same genders at the same age or what but everything you say, I am like, "Dylan is just like that"- with the cracks in the dock, or "Cade would totally do that"- with the gagging and throwing up over pumpkin guts. It is funny.
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