Turtle Power!

What is your favorite animal?

Turtles! Not necessarily sea turtles, but the cute little aquatic turtles. No particular reason, they’re just adorable. I even had them as pets many years ago. My first turtle was named Maverick. So named because when I put him on top of my car in the box from the pet store, wind caught him and he flew across the roof into the hands of my college roommate. I had put him there so I could unlock the car (no key fobs in those days!). So, since he flew, I named him Maverick, since that character in the movie “Top Gun” did a lot of flying.

Maverick was a good turtle. He escaped his tank one night when I brought him home for spring break. My mom had to rescue him from the jaws of her dog. A corner of his bottom shell was cracked and barely hanging on. It was questionable if he was going to make it. We consulted whatever vet we could for advice. My mom ended up saving his life by keeping him wet, without letting him dive completely underwater. She repeatedly put Neosporin on the cracked part and kept a rubber band around his shell so it would stay put.

That little fella survived and that piece of broken shell eventually fell off on its own. Almost like a fingernail that never grew back. Maverick lived for quite a while after that. He outgrew his tank at one point and when he started to become ornery about it, I found a turtle rehabilitation organization that took him so that he could eventually be released into the wild.

A few years after Maverick’s journey into the wild, I got another turtle like him. That one was named Picasso because he was an eastern (or western?) painted turtle. Picasso, the artist, painted, Picasso the turtle was painted. He lived in my classroom and was joined later by three baby turtles that were found on one of my student’s farm near their pond. The story of how I later got rid of all four turtles is both endearing and shockingly hilarious. And it’s also a story for another day. In the meantime, I present to you, the first tattoo I ever got:

My hair is long enough to cover it and it really does need touching up, but that little guy lives at the base of my neck, a forever reminder that turtles are my favorite animal.