The first time I saw Bratski, I thought he was dead.
I am an estimator for a contractor and we work on insurance losses. I work with my husband who owns the company. We were at a house on Valentines day earlier this year that had caught fire (a couple days prior to us arriving). The entire place was burned, especially the kitchen. The tenant had been evicted and when he finally got all of his stuff out, they think he set fire to the place. All that was left inside at the time of the fire was trash, a couple mattresses and some old clothes. I was walking through the dining area and saw a small 8"x8" baking dish on the floor with a small round black thing in it. when I bent down to take a closer look, I realized it was a small turtle. It was completely black, covered in soot, and just a shell. I said out loud to my husband and the insurance adjuster that was there "oh no, someone's pet turtle died in the fire, how sad". We went about our business for another hour or so, and I later returned to the area to take some pictures. So as not to trip or step on the dish, I gently pushed it into the corner with my foot and when it hit the wall, 4 feet and a head popped out of the little black shell. I yelled out loud again to anyone that could hear "oh my goodness! It's still alive!!!" No one seemed to really care much, but i announced to my husband "can we save him??" and he nodded. I left the dish in the same spot until we finished what we needed (a good 3 hours or so) and when it came time to leave I brought the dish outside. I had no idea what he was, what he needed or even how he was living before the fire, as there was no sign of an aquarium, habitat or even food. I poured water on him and cleaned the dish out as best I could and set him down on the driveway. The next 20 or so minutes he spent trying to get out of the dish. The last name of the man who owned the house (not the person who lived there and set it on fire) was Zebratski, I said to my husband 'this turtle is kind of an ungrateful jerk, here I saved his life and he wants to escape" to which my husband replied "you should name him Bratski, since he is being kind of a brat." We decided we had to take him straight to the pet store so that we could figure out what he was and if we would be able to take care of him. The pet lady told us what he was and what he needed and I was nervous, it sounded like a lot, so I said "We will keep him in the bathtub and see if anyone wants him, if not, we will bring him back here" because she said they could take him. My husband said no. He grabbed a 5 gallon tank, and basking rock, light and some food and we took him home. Over the past few months I have read up and this forum especially has really opened up my eyes to how easy it can be to mistreat these amazing animals. Last week we moved him into a 30 gallon with a Fluval filter and I am working on getting a better basking area. I am now in several hundred dollars on a "free" turtle I rescued and I think he will be a great life long friend.
This is what he looked like the day I found him (still in the baking dish) all of about 1.5" wide.
It was a few days before I tried using a soft brush on his shell to realize he was actually GREEN!