the saga continues

My male owner has been trying his best to coax Nana into the water and last night, he claimed that he did it! He even described the process to my female owner. Hold the worm in front of Nana, dangle it from left to right about six times, and Nana will go into the water.

My female owner then asked: “did you manage to get Nana out of the water?”

Male owner: “No, only into the water.”

Female owner: “what?! You left Nana in the water??”

Male owner: (‘.’);;;

still in the dark

My male owner still doesn't know how to feed Nana, after so many days. My female owner was a tad amused and a tad upset at the same time. Amused because he plays games like MapleStory. While he can gain control in such a high-level game, my male owner is unable to figure out such an elementary game.

Upset because... well... she's a woman so no real reason needed..

met my new friend?

Met my new friend? He’s called Nana, after my brother who died a few years back.

My female owner proved that she is the reigning turtle whisperer of Singapore. She managed to get Nana to jump into the water after a few seconds of adopting him.

My male owner took the whole night, and all he could do was to get Nana to look at the worm.

In fact, my female owner can get Nana to jump into the water, eat the worm, and jump back on the rock at will.

Somebody please help my male owner figure out this new pet… or else he will have no end from my female owner.

Now you know why we are living with our female owner…survival instinct.

my new friend!

adopt your own virtual pet!

the mysterious cat

My female owner does the darnest thing. Before I get rationed by her (of food) for saying this, I must remind her that my male owner said this of her. I, Nooki, am merely repeating what my male owner said. You see, she came home at 4am on Sunday. As she was unlocking her door, she saw a white cat sitting on the old armchair left outside her house (this armchair was left outside her house for people to wear their shoes). The cat was silent and still, quietly looking at her with his big round shiny eyes. The lateness of the night, together with the spooky demeanour of the cat, freaked her out and she scrambled into the house. She tried to redeem herself when she retold the story to my male owner and us, that she was just afraid that the cat will spring into the house, run straight to the balcony and pounce on us. Err… how would the cat know that there are terrapins in the house? Anyway, she didn’t manage to take any photos because her camera was spoilt (hint!) but she did find white fur on the armchair the next day, which basically proved that she was not seeing things. My female owner was fascinated by how the cat managed to find his way to the 9th storey to get to her flat. According to her, the cat looked very happy and contented with his find. She was left wondering how long the cat had been roosting outside her flat without anybody’s knowledge and whether the cat would return. To satisfy her curiosity, guess what my female owner did? She set her alarm at 4am on Monday morning to spy on the armchair. In the process of this, she actually woke up during the night (without the assistance of the alarm, mind you), struggled out of bed, searched for her glasses using her hands, and walked to the main door to check on the armchair. She repeated the process three times. Three times, she found the armchair empty. She got her answer. The cat didn’t return. Duh. My female owner does the darnest thing, doesn’t she?

Happy Mother's Day!

A tribute to all female turtle owners in the world for this Mother’s Day! It is certainly not an easy task, taking care of tortoises who hardly show overt appreciation for your care and dedication. You see, we don’t bark and wag our tails like the canines; neither do we hum a lovely song like the canaries. All we do is keep to ourselves and shy away from most human touch. In fact, we often look stoned and lifeless.

Looks like we (my female owner and myself) made a mistake about who ate the plastic bag. We unanimously thought that it was Nanook (sorry sister! Your past track record has not been very clean) but it turns out to be Dodo. We decided it was him coz he had not been his usual self since the incident. He was nursing a clogged tummy.

Dodo, you must understand, is my female owner’s favourite terrapin for many good reasons. One of the good reasons is that he is very tame to the human touch. He would not flinch if you touch his head or stroke his neck. In fact, he seeks out human interaction by rushing out to greet my owners whenever he knows they are near. This delights my female owner very much and hence, she speaks very proudly of him all the time (that's Dodo below).

Anyway, ever since the munch-on-plastic incident, Dodo kept to himself all the time in a corner of TurtleLand. He had a drugged look and was ultra-sensitive to touch. He also lost his appetite and remained curled up in his shell. My female owner noticed the change in his behaviour immediately and was quite concerned. She didn’t know what to do to make him feel better and decided not to agitate him at least.

Occasionally she would pop into TurtleLand to check on him and coax him to have some food. If he refuses, she would just let him be. Her patience and tenderness towards his predicament (she didn’t scold him or send him to the Sick Bay) must have been therapeutic for Dodo. Today, on Mother’s Day, he was able to have a decent meal, much to the relief of my female owner.

Moral of the story – while mother knows and loves best, keep those plastic bags away from us!

i wonder why

Been a long time since I posted a picture of myself. So I thought I better put one up, in case you forget how I look like.

This is a picture taken in April 06. On the left is me, and on the right is Nanook, my elder sister. The reason why the photo was taken is pretty obvious – my female owner is trying to capture our greediness in action. You see, that rectangular tank was our feeding tank (the old one – remember I told you that we got a new one recently?). We were hovering around the tank, trying to send the message that we were hungry and hence, waiting for some human intervention. We behave like humans at times right, hovering around something knowing that something good is going to happen (e.g. freebies)?

Anyway, the hidden point of taking the photo is that Dodo and Dona (my female owner’s terrapins – Nanook and myself belong to our male owner. Confused over ownership? Just remember that the “N”s belong to the male and the “D”s to the female but all four of us live together in the female’s house) were NOT hovering around the tank!

You get it now? My female owner wants to emphasise the “goodness” of her terrapins at the expense of us. Sigh… I wonder why.

eating plastic

Turtleland had a minor disaster in the wee hours of the morning. It started to rain heavily and a big gush of wind sent a clear plastic bag flying into our feeding tank.

My female owner woke up to this disaster scene where she found the plastic bag floating in the tank…. And small round holes in the bag. In an instant, she knew what happened – someone in our midst was so greedy, he/she stole a few bites of the bag! This is not good because it is potentially toxic.

My female owner had her suspect in mind but she did nothing about it. The consequence of eating plastic is in itself a punishment for the consumer. As for me, I’m not telling who it was.

exposure

my female owner decided to expose me to more humans (she said that it's unhealthy for my development to interact with only her and my male owner) and added a tag board on this blog for me!

So, please feel free to leave a message for me and I will reply in my own turtle time.

affair

My female owner came home late last night. We were all waiting anxiously for her as it was feeding day. She finally appeared at about 11pm. This was strange. She usually reached home by 9pm on a Monday.

I later found out that my female owner was late because she was having an affair. The truth was, she has music classes on Mondays and yesterday, she felt really fat and wobbly and decided that she needed more exercise to ooze out the excess oil. She gave music lessons a miss and went for a 4.5hr badminton spree. Hence, the affair.

The truth be told, for all her hard work, she still looks the same size…

best museum in Singapore - die die must go

Do you know that there are about 35 museums in Singapore and there is one for us terrapins/ turtles/ tortoises? It's called the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum located at the Chinese Garden. Admission is $5 (that is about half month supply of food for all four of us). It is worth the distance and money, I promise you. The museum is opened by turtle lovers (there are many in Singapore, my female owner can attest to that) and houses more than 200 turtles and tortoises from over 60 different species. It has a petting corner which allows humans to get up close with some of these turtles and tortoises. Although the name of the museum conveniently left out "terrapins", I would say that we red-earred sliders make up a large proportion of the entire population there. Let me show you why...

Top: The beautiful landscaped turtle pond with hundreds of terrapins.

Below: My fellow mates waiting in anticipation for food.










Below: Friends on dry land











Below: The terrapin which caught my owners' attention.

it's a new month

It’s a new month! Many things to look forward to. First, there’s Mother’s Day on the 13th of May. Since I left my hometown many years ago, my female owner is like my mother to me. She takes care of most of my needs and makes sure that I grow up well, despite my traumatic childhood (a little more another day). So, it’s a day worth celebrating with her. Hmmm, just don’t ask me to lay an egg! Second, my birthday (and Nanook’s) is approaching! Okay, maybe not as soon as you would expect – it’s in July – but it’s soon enough to warrant some mention. Hint hint! Third, we have a new wading and feeding tank. It’s so much better than the previous feeding tank which has been around longer than me. It’s bigger and lower in height. This makes it easier for us to climb in and out of the tank. Will get my female owner to snap a few photos for you to see, then you know what I mean. Fourth, my female owner is working from home these couple of days. Wah, it’s a godsend for her and for us as well. She’s usually too busy to pay us much attention, but now, she can afford the time to let us out for a walk in the rest of the house! A whole afternoon of free-and-easy exploration around the house for us. It’s like being cooped up in a small cell for a long time and finally being let loose. The smell of freedom beckons!