Good-bye, Ellie... Well, I have been trying to talk Doug into freeing his pet hatchling ornamental box turtle for months now. We have had her since early this Spring. She has lived in a vivarium in Doug's room. She is a worry, though... She is such a persnickety eater that all we can get her to eat are meal worms (which, the literature warns are calcium deficient and a steady diet of them will cause shell deformities). We continue to offer her other little insects and things...but she holds out for those meal worms. I had gotten to where I sprinkled them with reptile vitamins...but, still I worried.

Lately, Ellie had begun refusing to eat the worms we set out for her...probably because the extra meal worms that she didn't eat at previous feedings had taken up residence in her vivarium and were there for her to hunt at her own leisure. (Probably the ones she hunted for herself tasted better since the vitamin powder had had time to wear off them!)

Dear little Ellie has to have a "bath" every day or two to keep her from dehydrating. Lately, I had taken to letting her hang out for a half hour or so in the bathroom sink (with the slightly warmed water only an inch and a half or so deep). Tonight, I put her in the sink with the usual warning to the two little kids, "No one go in the bathroom while Ellie is in there. I don't want anyone bothering her. Stay out of the upstairs bathroom." With that, I went downstairs to make several phone calls. Forty-five minutes later, I came upstairs to take Ellie back to her vivarium. I was horrified to find her swimming in a sink full of cold water...about six inches deep for a little turtle who is about one inch tall. I don't know how long she had been in that predicament. I only knew that she very easily could have tired in the cold water and drowned. Doug admitted to having added to her "bath" water. I told Doug that that was it. (There had been other times he had done things that had the potential of being detrimental to the turtle...doing so against the specific guidelines I had given him. But, this is the first time his actions could have seriously harmed her.) I told Doug he needed to let her go...immediately. He and Rayna took her outside in the dark and let her go in our front yard. No crying, no fussing...just matter of factly. (Well, Rayna tried to interject a little drama into it, but, she was over it two minutes later.) I think Ellie is probably well fed enough that she will weather her hibernation okay. Besides, she still has a while left before it will be time to burrow down for the winter, anyway. Maybe we will see her again one of these days. She has a deformity of first left toe that will make her easily identifiable no matter how much she grows and ages before she comes across our path again. It is a relief to me that we finally let her go. Turtles aren't dogs...they don't love their owners and ENJOY being pets...at least, that is my opinion. Ellie had grown used to us and ceased being fearful of us...but, I have no doubt that she is so much happier to be out in the yard tonight!  ¶ 9/14/2006 07:16:00 PM