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!