liberation of turtymonster i got this little turtle, like, six years ago. he was tiny, tiny. egg tooth and all.



i got him a pretty nice little setup.


and fish to eat.

he grew to be pretty big. i think his paws now are bigger than he was altogether when i got him.

from this:


to this:

and this was even a couple of years ago, so he probably has grown since.

i loved him a lot. you know, for a grumpy turtle.

ed has a lake thing by his house. turtles live in it. sometimes i'd see the turtles basking happily and feel bad for the turtle, who lived inside in a 55-gallon tank. he loved to fish, he loved to bask.. wouldn't he be happier outside? the thought plagued me for weeks. while going to the store one bright, sunny day, i passed the little lake and smiled at the happy basking turtles. then i did a u-turn and went to get my turtle so i could let him go. ed and i giggled at the turtle when we saw him realize, while sitting in my hand, that he was free to go. then he swamswamswamp, stopping to investigate, oh, sticks and stuff.

so now this is where he lives.


now he can bask with the anhingas. knowing him, he probably tries to eat them.


it's been a couple of weeks. i've seen him out there a few times now, basking with the other ones. the first time i saw him, i ran home to get ed to come look with me. it about made me cry.

i got pics the other day, but they turned out not so great. i probably won't see him again, camera in hand, for at least a week. so take this. looks like a pic of the loch ness monster, doesn't it?



i know you shouldn't release animals into the wild, but i researched online and didn't see anything bad about sliders in florida. i've seen them around. and while they're not native to here - i think they're only native south to georgia or something - i didn't find anything that they were hurting our ecosystem. australia, yes. florida, no.

and i had no doubt he'd survive. he catches fish like a mofo.

so i don't recommend you go out and buy a baby turtle and raise to to adulthood and let it go, but turty is a special case. i'm so much happier with him out in the lake, knowing that he's so much happier too. :)  ¶ 7:48 PM