The Year of Two Mistakes – Part Two:  The Tale of Mistake #2

 Remember that I said, “Every day, I make mistakes – sometimes more and sometimes fewer than the day before.”  And, remember that I said, my house often has unusual animals living here? My #3 daughter reminded me that we also had prairie dogs and that we babysat (OWLSAT?) an owl that belonged to a friend. This is part two of last week’s blog.  The second BIG mistake of the year about two years ago.

MISTAKE # 2:  Beth (my geologist friend), and her friend found some ancient turtle tracks somewhere in the hills west of the metro area.  After many discussions about the tracks, as well as preservation activities by interested parties and directed by Beth, she wondered what would turtle tracks look like from today’s animals.  “No problem,” I assured her.  “I’ll just get a turtle, and I’ll ask a photographer friend Marjie to photograph the turtle’s tracks.”

You also need to know that, when I talked with sister Clara, she said, “No..NO…NO…(Shouting now)…No, No, No…..  Remember, also, that she always says I don’t listen to her?  Well  …….

Off I went to the pet store to find Mike who had always been ready to help with the geckos. I ruled out the turtles that live primarily in water; I didn’t want to deal with water care – changing the water, keeping it clean and sanitary.  I saw the Russian tortoises in non-water habitats and decided that is what I wanted.  I walked out of the pet store with my wallet about $300 emptier.  That was my first shock.  These things are not cheap!  I had a glass aquarium habitat, water bowl, basking light, night warming light, coconut bedding, and … a Russian tortoise.  But, with no food.  Tortoises are basically vegetarians.  So that meant a trip to the grocery store for dark greens; definitely not ice berg lettuce..

After I installed the tortoise in the habitat with bedding, water, some green food, and a hidey-hole, I was ready to learn something  about this creature I had just invited to live in my house.  First and foremost – I learned that tortoises live between fifty and one hundred years! She will probably outlive me.  That knowledge provoked a call to my youngest daughter who agreed that she would assume responsibility for her (I decided she is a girl tortoise) in the event it was necessary for her to live with someone else.

I looked up the Russian word for tortoise and found, cherepakha.  So, her name is Chere; pronounced – cherry, and I estimate that she is approximately fourteen years old by counting the ridges on the carapace, her top shell (which may or may not be the way to determine her age).

It has turned out that having Chere come to live with me has been rather fun.  I never call her a pet because she isn’t a pet – she lives with me and is very much her own person.  She does have a personality – believe it or not!  She likes to have her head and neck scratched, and she DOES NOT like to be wakened from sleep.  Most of the time when I pick her up and use a make-up brush to clear away the bedding that clings to her shell, she does not object.  However, if I wake her up from what to me appears to be a “sound sleep,” and start to brush off her shell, she hisses at me.  Yes, she hisses at me.  Sometimes, louder than other times.  Hissing is the only sound I’ve ever heard from her.

Sometimes, in the morning, she is sitting in her food bowl and looking out as if to say, “Isn’t it time for food?”  Chere’s vet says that her breed may be the most intelligent of all reptiles.

Neighbor Keith gave us a large plastic outdoor pool for fish.  It is set up in my house with bedding and a hiddey-hole for a playpen for her.

Russian tortoises are diggers.  She digs into the bedding in both of her habitats – her daily home and her play pen.  The playpen bedding is deep enough that when I get ready to put her back into her regular habitat with day and night lights for warmth, I sometimes must search for her deep in the playpen bedding.

When I was traveling, she traveled with me.  She has her own small plastic box that she lives in when we travel in the car; a plastic box that becomes a bathtub for her as needed.

She has been on a train to Wisconsin and in my car on the way to Nebraska and Wisconsin and New Mexico.  She is a good traveler.  She doesn’t bark, meow, fly, or pee on the rug! So, yes, this second big mistake has turned out to be fun.

If only all of our big mistakes could be resolved as easily as these two, life would be infinitely easier.

Be safe and be well.

The Cranky Crone

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