Other Turtle Discussion :: "Wild" Turtle Stories

[z-chic]

It is all ignorance and fear...people are afraid of what they don't understans. I welcome any animal in my house, we have even had "pet" barn spiders that lived in the window and would catch flies. LOL Other than the Black widows that were all over our back yard where the kids played (in Tennessee) we enjoy the wild life.

[scripta_elegans]

I don't mind spiders either, but my husband is terrified of them. I have to give them an escourt outside if we find them. But of course, black widows +children, not a good mix. I also love bats. I think they are absolutely darling. Yet another beneficial and misunderstood critter. Okay, yes they do occasionally carry rabies, I see that as a problem, but they eat lots of bugs, and really want nothing to to with humans.

[CountryGirl68]

I think it's mostly ignorance rather than fear. One of my co-workers thought that my taking Tanner to the vet was the stupidist thing she had ever heard. So I asked her why she felt it was important to take a cat or dog to the vet, when they live only an average of 20 years, and not a turtle, who can live upwards of 50 years. She got a puzzled look on her face and walked away. She still thinks it's stupid the money I've spent on this turtle but is careful not to say it.

[Ozzyy]

woah ... snakes......woah.... they are cool but i let em be... another interesting thing happened recently..... my friend has 3 RES in a pond (to of them had a wierd shoving problem a while ago) well oneday he and i went out to the pond to check on the turtles... apparently the turtles had been "renting out" thier pond because there were 2 male painteds, 1 female res, and a cooter.. that had moved into the pond i figured they moved iin cause the pond up the street was getting drained.... the seemed wild on the first day and we were gonna relocate them immediatley but we didnt have enbouh time..... but it turns out. the cooter and the 2 painteds were previously domesticated cause they woufed down the pellets and lettuce... the cooter.. was kinda aggressive and we gave him to a turtle rescure to relocate him. so now my friend has 6 turtles... and they all seem to be quite the neigbors. he had to enlarge his pond a bit though to accomodate his new permanent guests.

[Ferd]

thats pretty kool. ive always love thosekinda stories that end positive like the turtles moving in. at our house we have a set of turtles return to your house every year, box turtles, to lay eggs. its really cool since we get to watch them hatch around the same time each year like within the same week! i always thought that was kool. Anywho, we put up a little fence around the egg cites so that the dogs we have (3 and somtimes 4 when we foster) dont trample the eggs. we then watch the little tykes hatch and emerge from the ground. its kinda a family tradition and always love to watch it!

[lotsofpets]

My mom was watching hatchling turtles make their way to the pond one time and was walking through leaves, grass, twigs, etc., and accidentally stepped on one of the baby turtles. (It was under a leaf, so she had know way of telling it was there) She felt so terrible about it! The only way that I could comfort her is by telling her that it died of a quick and painless death. (A much worse way to go would have been eaten by a bird, larger turtle, fish, frog, etc., or any other numerable ways)

[JNZBCBnLIL]

I was on my way home from FL with lil Leo, I had gotten him for Brandon as a gift and surprise along with all of the equipment I thought we were going to need , and I get this frantic call and it was Brandon telling me he had just run over a turtle trying to cross the road!! He told me he tried to avoid it but there was no way he could and he felt awful! I was told there are a lot of RES in our area and it made me sad to think that he could have hit one of the wild ones, he told me it wasn't a very big turtle! So I finally got home that night and told Brandon that ironically I had gotten him a turtle earlier on that week in FL and to make up for what had happened earlier that day he would just need to take extra good care of the our new little one! He agreed and fell in love with Leo instantly! Everything was so ironic but so far he's kept his word and Lil Leo seems to be doing great!