Put your left foot in, Put your left foot out

John was seriously deprived as a child in that he did not have any pets growing up. None. Nada. Zero. Since we have been dating, we've had a cockatiel (that he bought me for Christmas before we were married), two finches (after the cockatiel escaped), a miniature pinscher, two guinea pigs (Sam and Peter) a Jack Russell terrier (after the min-pin was hit by a car) a cat (who won't pee on the toilet) and two baby turtles. I grew up with lots of pets, so I gladly accept any and all new additions to our family when they come. And then I regret it. So it goes with these two amphibians.

Our son, Eric, adores turtles. They are without a doubt his favorite animal. I searched high and low for a baby turtle in NY only to find out that in NY, it is illegal to purchase a turtle until it is six inches across the shell (unless you are a teacher). So last summer on a father-son trip to FL, John and Eric adopted two baby turtles that cousin Jessica Hendershot had caught. They brought them home on the airplane and we fell in love with the silver-dollar-sized creatures. But since turtles have risk of salmonella, we decided that John would take care of their habitat for safety reasons. I think he did this one time. Yours truely has become quite efficient at mucking the tank because I've had lots of practice. So after much loving, doting, cleaning and feeding, as soon as spring arrives, the creatures of the beautiful pond at Lockheed Martin are getting two new roommates. Luckily our turtles have very good apptites, and they are now much bigger than they were when they came to NY. They should make out fine in the wild.

One of the funniest things about them is how they bask under the heat lamp--they stick one front and one back leg out, and later they switch and put out the opposite limbs to let the "sun" soak right in! Sometimes the legs reach as straight up in the air as the shell with let it go. By the way, Eric's smaller turtle (the one in the back) is Flippers and Caroline's, a little bigger, is named Sheila. I'll just have to figure out what to do with all the free time that I'll have after all the sludge and algae is gone.