reintroducing my turtle you don't see or hear much of my turtle these days.. he's a damn good pet, though. unlike, say, my tortoise, he reacts when i walk in the room (by jumping off his basking log in terror). and unlike my kitten, he doesn't make me sneeze.

i got turty, as he was named, at the (depressing) swap shop in 2001 or so. i actually got two little turtles, but the other barely made it through the night. turty was tiny at first.. he even had his little egg tooth. hatchling! i kept him in a little tupperware container and he ate tiny itty bitty pellets. i remember how cute it was when he tried to bite. "oh, whatcha gonna do, TRIM MY NAILS?"

he used to be really cute. he used to sleep on me when i had him in wisconsin and the winters were cold. he's been in an airplane and driven with me cross-country. well, i did most of the driving. he just fiddled with the radio and pooped a lot.

five years (and many enclosures) later, the turtle has grown from quarter-size to bigger-than-my-hand size. his pinprick nostrils that i used to think were so cute are now cavernous, gaping holes. instead of tiny pellets, he eats the grown-up kind. or goldfish. he prefers the latter. and yeah, it's not so cute when he tries to bite now. luckily, that's not often. mostly he just hides.

see why they call them "turtlenecks"?

turty was definitely an impulse purchase, but never one i regretted. even though i'm pretty sure he'd eat me if he could.

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