finally a sunny day

After a spate of rainy days, the sun finally decided to report to work. It was a pleasant change for us terrapins, (and I’m sure many humans) as the warm sun rays helped us to regulate our body temperature. For some strange reason, my female owner was at home even though it was a Friday. I later found out that she was on leave.

It was fun having her at home. Because she was free, she took away the wooden plank that separates the balcony where we stay and the rest of the house. This means that we can, at our own time and pleasure, climb over a short ledge into the living room, where it’s a gateway for us to explore new things.

See the photo below. That’s me on the ledge. Nanook is the bigger one showing her bum while Dodo is the smaller one.

Anyway, Nanook and Dodo had a field day exploring new grounds. This exposure to a simulating environment is very important, to keep us alert and happy. Our balcony is getting too small and boring. I mean, we have lived there all our lives! This is especially so for Nanook who is getting bigger and fatter by the day. She is certainly running out of shady spots which can accommodate her big shell and would jump at any opportunity to look for fresh places.

As for me, I took the chance to stone in my favourite spot in the balcony - under the trolley. I mean, how often will you get the chance to rest alone in your favourite hide-out without having to share space??

Alas, my bliss was short-lived. My female owner took it upon herself to teleport me to the living room. As what all terrapins with high EQ would do, I did a few courtesy rounds in the living room and when she was distracted, planted myself in a cozy corner to snooze my afternoon away…

it's Christmas!

Today is Christmas! Yeah. No presents from my owners (I mean, what can you get for four terrapins who do bascially nothing but eat and sleep right?) but it's the feeling to being loved and cared for which makes all of us happy. My male owner came over again and we always look forward to seeing him because he is more generous with the food. Ha. Anyway, my female owner played her part too and gave the balcony a good scrub. As usual, dodo was so happy to see our beloved owners that he followed them around the balcony like a happy dog. Sometimes he would even climb onto their feet while they are mopping the floor. I'm not sure what he is trying to say through this action but my owners sure love it, especially the female one. Female Owner (FO): "You see you see, Dodo is walking out to greet us again." Male Owner (MO): "Yah, I see him". FO: "See, MY turtle is so grateful to us. What happened to yours? Where are they?" MO looks around and sees me and Nanook snoozing away in the shade. MO (in a not-so-sure voice): "Err...they are resting?" MO looks at us desperately, hoping that we will move to show our appreciation but nah...rest is more important.

the rainy season

The rainy season finally reached hot and humid Singapore. The largest downpour to hit Singapore in 75 years arrived on Tuesday, 19 Dec. The heavens opened in the early morning and rain only stopped early next morning. That is more than 24 hours of cool, wet weather. My siblings and I love water, and get very excited whenever it rains. We become livelier then and like it most if the rain comes into the balcony and soaks us wet. You see, Singapore is so hot and it makes us feel so lethargic. Plus, hot weather means the sun is shining brightly, which means that we have less shade for our essential afternoon snooze. Because of the torrendous rain, many parts of Singapore were flooded. My female owner commented in jest that if she released us to swim in the flood, we would all drown, because of our inability to swim. Why does she think that we cannot swim? Well... all because of a swimming lesson she put us through in January this year. If she had to grade us, I probably fail with flying colours. I was the only turtle who sank right to the bottom of the tank. At least my other siblings did some form of swimming.. before struggling for help. See the photo below? Yah, that's me sinking right to the bottom of the tank. My female owner attributed this sinking act to my body weight. What more can I say?

all that was needed was a poke

my female owner was livid yesterday. You see, Dona followed my fine example and he had a prolapse too. The difference was, his male organ (erm.. i don't have to explain too much right?) was also hanging out. So, coming out of his tail on the right side was his anus and the left side was his male organ. My female owner was very upset when she saw it. She started whining to my male owner about how come every one of us was taking turns to fall sick, that it was so expensive to bring us to the vet (remember my grand bill?) and so troublesome to take leave to bring us there. (Believe me, if I had a choice, I wouldnt want to be ill too!). Anyway, my dear male owner (yes, the one I cheated by pretending to be super active) tried to calm her down and finally, they prayed over Dona. Again, they adopted a "wait-and-see" approach. Fast forward to today. Dona's condition remained the same. My owners wanted to bring Dona to the vet as early as possible coz they figured that early treatment would cost less. They obviously remembered how they waited for one week before bringing me to the vet and ended up with a huge medical bill. As they were tiptoeing out of the house with Dona, my female owner's mother questioned them about their movements and started to become as hysterical as my female owner yesterday. You see, she never believed in spending money on vet visits and would always scold my owners for "wasting money". She claimed that all Dona needed was a poke to stuff his internal organs back up his tail. You know what? She was right! It took a grand total of FIVE seconds to reverse the prolapse. Later on, she even gave Dona a manicure by clipping off his extremely long nails. My lucky brother, was healed almost instantly, whereas I had to endure a week of prolapse, no appetite, surgery and stitches, awful medication and weird tasting food, and multiple visits to the vet and endless scolding from my female owner and the list goes on. All because, the in-house vet a.k.a. my female owner's mother was on holiday when I was ill. Life's unfair.

chill-out spot

The first photo shows one of my favourite chill-out places. The second is a close-up shot. I can stone here for hours or even days, if my owners would allow me, that is. What do I like about this dark corner (it is about the size of a opened magazine - it looks bright in the photos because my female owner used flash)? The ability to survey the surroundings without being seen myself.
I've spent many hours watching my siblings at play. They each have their own idiosyncracies and antics which never fails to amuse me. Dodo for instance, loves to "climb the wall", as my owners would call it. He can spend hours trying to scale this pink wall, moving to and fro its entire length. I wonder why he does it day after day, night after night, despite not succeeding. There's a saying that goes something like "a fool does the same thing over and over again, expecting different results". I wonder what is Dodo expecting from this.
As for me, i'm contented to remain here, out of sight of my owners... and hopefully out of mind... Alas, my male owner has sealed up the place ever since my illness. He thinks that I got infected there (tell you a secret, the only way to get me out of the dark corner is to stick your arm in and grope in the dark to locate me. He's afraid of doing it because he thinks that I will bite him in the process!)

busy

i know that my female owner is busy when
i) she visits us only once every 2 days and her sole purpose is to feed us (we are fed once every alternate day, you see. she read in some web-site that terrapins like us should be fed only once every two days)
ii) she visits us only once every 2 days and feeds only some of us (because she doesnt have the time to wait for all of us to finish glupping down 2 human days' worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner)
iii) she visits us on the third day of our last feed!

It has been ii) and iii) recently and I am praying that she will be able to make more time for us. You see, although we are soliatary and shy creatures by nature, we have grown used to humans (coz my owners make it a point to spend time with us) and we get excited everytime we see them.. With every sighting of a human (esp my owners), it brings hope that food is near...

ever wondered?

ever wondered how your backside looks like? I have, many times, even more so after my illness. The literal "pain in the ass" served a fine reminder that (promise you don't laugh) I've never seen my backside!

Actually, for us terrapins, we will not be able to see beyond our front limbs. We know that we have four limbs and a tail. If we use only the two limbs which we can see, we will not be able to move very far. With the same token, although I've never seen my tail, I do receive shock waves whenever anyone steps on it.



The mysteries of life for a terrapin - being dependent on parts of your body which you cannot see, even though other terrapins can see them. The good news for curious terrapins like me is that, we can rely on technology to shed some light on how our body parts look like to the rest of the world.

$179.55

my female owner's credit card bill has arrived. Normally it's not an issue for me but this time it is coz 4 items, adding up to a grand total of $179.55 belongs to me!
















That is equals to 20 bottles of turtle food, which is equals to 2 years supply of food for 4 of us, which is equals to 8 years supply of food for me. Wah!

I know my female owner is very upset now. $179.55 is equals to many clothes and bags which her wardrobe badly needs. you know what's the best part? My male owner, knowing how upset she will be, has stepped in like a hero to say, "I will cover Nooki's medical bills, here's $200" Oh...so sweet. but then my female owner, being female (or is it just her?), probably thinks "well, if not for Nooki, I can use the $200 to upgrade my wardrobe". No matter what, she still sees it as a loss to her. Women!

recovery

for those who are asking about me, I've fully recovered from my ordeal. The recent illness has made me realised how much my owners care for me. I used to think that my female owner was very "pian xin" - she always spoke affectionately of my brothers and complained about us girls to my male owner (of how lazy we are, how fast we are getting fat, how we ignore her when she comes to find us etc etc) - but now I know, she cares a lot for me too (although she did still complain about how expensive it is to bring me to the Vet, and how she had to take off to bring me there etc). To show my appreciation, I've made it a point to "show face" more often - come out of my dark spots to greet her, allow her to stroke me under my neck, smile at her when she sees me (yes, terrapins do smile too!). All's well that ends well... may peace be with us all..

one of my favourite spots

this is me, hiding under the Trolley (as you can see, it's made of wood. For a complete picture of the Trolley, just imagine a rectangular piece of wood above me). This Trolley is one of my favourite spots in the Balcony where I live with my siblings. The black thing you see blocking my pretty face is an upside down slipper. Yah, my balcony is that hazardous. So much debris lying around, no wonder I prefer to stay put in a dark corner to do my daily meditation and yoga regime. I'm getting too big for the Trolley. My shell is getting higher, and it scraps against the top of underside of the Trolley. So when I walk under the Trolley, I tend to drag it along with me as I walk (just picture a trolley moving by itself). My female owner, bless her kind-but-can-be-kinder soul, used to laugh at me. She would say that I'm so dumb to drag a trolley along with me wherever I go. Then she would say that I'm so FAT. Fortunately, I'm not bearing the brunt of her jokes (yes! it gets worse!). She would say that my sister, Nanook, is so so greedy that she grew so big that she can't even get under the Trolley. Haha. There's a Chinese saying that goes "yi shan bi yi shan gao", indeed in the reptile world, the similar saying would be "yi ke bi yi ke gao"

For the records, this is me and my sister about a year ago. You can see that she is bigger than me already. Ha.

the biggest turtle i ever seen

Once in a while, my owners would show us something to amuse us. This time, it was a huge turtle, the biggest I ever since in my short 4 years of life. Er.. okay, it's not a real one, but it's special because it was a walking ballon turtle! My male owner, sprang a surpise on my female owner by disappearing for a long while in a shopping centre. He later appeared, walking this turtle behind him. I heard that my female owner was really happy but she responded with what female Chinese heartlanders always say when they are happy but too pai-say to admit "ai-yah, why you waste money?"

Anyway, my owners decided to share their new-found joy with us by bringing Mr Huge into our home (see picture below). In case you are wondering why Mr Huge is on top of me, it's because my female owner thought that I looked quite like him (err... maybe it's our skin colour, yah, I think she's colour-ist). You can see that Dona is really excited at this new kaki (I always thought he has a penchant for huge turtles, because he's always chasing after Nanook). Dodo, on the other hand, is peering at Dona (I think Dodo is gay, coz he has the hots for Dona). Finally, there's Nanook, my dear sister, who is walking away. It's so like her to be disinterested in everything around her, unless it's feeding time. As for me, i was just trying to get Mr Huge off my back!

doom revealed

The little bird was right. My owners whisked me off to the Vet's on Sunday morning. After what seemed like eternity, the vet came. She is actually a nice and warm young lady but when she is the master of your fate, you can't help but want to escape from her clutches. Anyway, she held me up and looked at me this way and that. I tried to smile at her and use turtle language to tell her that I'm really ok, stop making a big fuss over me. But alas, for all her intelligence, she couldn't receive my message...
After a while, she took me away from my owners to remove the stitches in my intestines. That was another painful and terrifying experience that no words can describe, so I will leave it at that.
After what seemed like second eternity, I was brought back to my owners. I never felt happier to see them. My female owner, obviously having more maternal or rather, turternal instinct, asked about my health status. The vet, in her sweet and kind voice, instructed my female owner to put me in warm water and sunlight to increase my metabolism as I was constipated and needed to produce more you-know-what. My female owner, being her usual self, replied, "Yah, Nooki is the laziest at home". Can somebody tell me what's the link??

impending doom

a little bird told me that my owners will be bringing me to the vet again! Although I look steady outside (my male owner calls me "an armour tank"), I'm actually shaking inside. What are they going to do to me this time? For the past two weeks, my home has been reduced to a 80% opaque plastic container. I can't really see what's on the outside, although I know that my siblings are walking around and having the time of their lives, while I am cooped up in this container. My owners call it quarantine. I call it torture.

the week after

well.. it has been a week since I was dragged to the vet to check on my prolapse. This week had been a tiring week as I had to fight against my owners' trickeries. You see, I had to take oral medicine because of the minor surgery. However, which human, much less a terrapin, likes to be on dope? First, they held me high up in the sky, with my face looking down. One of them tried to get me to open my mouth by probing my mouth with a needle syringe. Their objective was to forcefeed me with food. They tried for a good 15 mins before releasing me into my tank. Nooki-1, Owners-0.

After they released me, I decided to "give face". So when they tried to entice me with some food on a spoon, I obliged immediately. Nooki-1, Owners-1 Afterall, a hand-fed terrapin is quite unheard of in the reptile world!

That's when they pushed their luck. They tried to dope my food with some disgusting smelling medicine (I later learnt the medicine were steriods and anti-biotics). Aint no way am I going to oblige this time! So there they were trying to coax me to fall for their trick and there I was, getting more and more agitated by the minute. My tank was very small and I had problems trying to evade their advances. Finally they gave up. Nooki-2, Owners-1. The same cycle continued every night and the final scoreline was Nooki-7, Owners-1.

the sodomy

Many people are not aware but turtles defecate through a hole in their tails. My body size had always been a source of concern for my female owner (tell you more about her next time). She always grumbled that I am too fat and round, that my internal organs (like kidneys, liver, heart etc) are squashed together inside my compact shell. Last Sunday, her greatest fear for me came true - my intestines came out from my tail (see the red sacs in the picture below)

It was a horrifying and agonising week for me as my intestines remained outside my body. I felt really uncomfortable and I couldn't bring myself to eat anything. My female owner, having found out that my condition was a prolapse, adopted a wait and see attitude. When she finally "wait and see" no progress, she brought me to the vet the following Sunday.

The vet performed some excruciating procedure on me (I was conscious throughout ok!) and managed to stuff everything back inside me again. She ordered my female owner to bring me back to see her in three days' time and my female owner meekly obeyed today. Bad move. The vet, I still believe in the goodness of her heart despite what happened, applied some cream onto a syringe and thrusted the syringe INTO my anus. In and out, in and out. My lungs were screaming out in pain and my eyes would have popped out if they could. What on earth was she trying to achieve with that act?? Finally, the vet was done with her exploits and I was put back into the water. Naturally, I sulked the whole day. I still am. Leave me alone.

my cute and happy wriggle

As with most red-eared terrapins, I was adopted from a pet-shop. One good Sunday four years ago, I was lazing in the common miniature tank with my fellow terrapin mates (similar to the Chinese junks where the forefathers of Singapore travelled in to get to Nanyang, it was cramp, smelly and food was hard to come by) when suddenly, I saw the face of a guy peering into the tank.
My ancestors used to have this word of advice for us - when someone looks into the tank, it's time to spring into action and start moving around. Best is if you can move towards the person. It's something like a mating call, only now, it's to entice someone to adopt you. So I mustered up all my energy to swim towards that guy's hand (remember that I wasn't well fed!) and as what my ancestors forewarned, he took hold of me and inspected me.
I gave him the cutest and happiest wriggle of my life. Lo and behold, he fell for the trick and chose to adopt me! Of course, he chose my sister Nanook as well. He probably thought that it would be better for me to have company but really, terrapins are solitary creatures. We are happy being left alone to bask in the sun or in my case, meditate in a dark corner.
At this point, you must be wondering whether my brothers played the same trick. Well, it's another long story.. to be told another time.

my family

This is my family. As you know by now, I'm the yellow coloured terrapin on the bottom right hand corner. Next to me on my left is my sister, Nanook. Believe me, we are born at around the same time. No thanks to her gigantic appetite, I am the size I am today. On top of her is my elder brother, Dodo. Yes, I said elder. He's six years old - two years older than us. Next to Dodo and on top of me is my other elder brother, Dona. YES, he is also six years old. I have absolutely no idea why they are so puny in size. Many people can't believe that we (the gals) are so much bigger than them. But it's usually the case in the animal kingdom where the females are larger in size. I'm not sure what we are doing in this photo. Think it was just another lazy afternoon, where our owner (the female one, we have two, the other is a male, but more on them another day) had nothing better to do than to line us up for a photograph.

I am who I am

This is me, the big gal. My name? Nooki. Life on planet earth? 4 years and still counting. Human being calls me many things - turtle, terrapin, wugui, tortoise, guigui, shangui. But really, I am a red-eared slider, or to the learned, I am a Trachemys Scripta Elegans. The many who have seen me describe me in many terms - cute, big, fat, yellow, scary, slow... with such "accolades", you can expect me to suffer from low self-esteem. but nay, i turn a deaf ear to all these comments. I am who I am. Who cares how the world sees me?