Hi. There is a bit of a funny story attached to my turtle's name. When I first got my red-eared slider back in 2006 I didn't know very much about turtles. My friend had 3 and I thought they were amazing. So, I got one. When I first got her, she was a regulation small fry and I put her in her tank. Then I got her some little tank friends, two baby plecos. A short time later, I'm enjoying watching my 3 babies doing their things in the tank ... swimming around.. all was tranquil.. and then I saw my baby turtle going over to investigate the two babies... OH COOL!, I thought. She is going over to make nice-nice with her new friends. Then CHOMP!
One baby is now half a baby. I'm yelling, run, baby, run to the other one, and then as I saw the turtle closing in, I had to put my hands over my horrified eyes.
When I dared look again, there were no more fish or fish parts in the water.
I realized she and I had a real cultural divide. My love of all living things vs her hunger for same. (Laugh). It reminded me of this book I read - Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It's about this human who was raised on Mars amongst Martians. When he comes to live on Earth, the culture shock really takes him aback. So many things we take for granted were very alien to him. In honor of this cultural clash between my turtle and I, I named her Valentine Michael Smith (after the main character) and resolved to always be respectful of her culture - even where it clashes with my own. I call her Valentine for short.
So, she gets her feeder fish and I don't watch and we are both happy.
(In the photo below, her reflection is also captured in the glass in the back of the tank.)
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 11:18 pm
