the long and short of it

My female owner gets a lot of questions regarding her love for turtles. You see, besides rearing turtles for more than half her life, she has hundreds of turtle paraphernalia in the form of soft toys, magnets, t-shirts, money-boxes, containers, ornaments, tissue paper, key-chains, office accessories, slippers etc etc.

Anyway, one common question asked would be “so, do you keep turtles?” and her proud answer would be “yes, I have four”

Q: “Wah, so many, how long have you had them?”

A: “about 5-7 years”

Q: “how do you tell them apart?”

Depending on her mood, my female owner may either give an abbreviated version or an expounded version of how to tell us apart.

Short version: “different sizes and colours”

Long version: “Oh, they are different in sizes and colours. Not only that, they have different personalities too. Dodo, this palm-sized dark green one, is very curious. He likes to come out to greet people and lavishes in human touch. He would even walk into your hand if you stretch out yours. He enjoys even being stroked at his neck. Dona, the skinny and smallest, is anxious by nature. While he may have very bright and dark eyes and look very alert, he does not like to be touched. He only likes to look around. Be careful, he might even bite you if he is threatened. He is the only one who can flip himself over if overturned.

Nanook is the biggest of all. To lift her, you need to use both hands. She usually moves when she sees you coming with food. Other than that, she will be sleeping or resting in the corner. Nooki, the bloated turtle, cannot retract her head or limbs into her shell. In fact, if you tap her on her head, she will look like she is going to explode, because her eyes will puff up and turn red. Nooki hardly moves, whether or not there is food around. Sometimes, you have to drag her out for meals. She is that nonchalant. Nooki has the nicest nails.

You may be interested to know that Dona likes Nanook and will trail her wherever she goes. Similarly, Dodo likes Dona and will follow behind him. Hence, sometimes you will see Nanook leading the way, followed by Dona and then Dodo. Nooki, the most indifferent turtle of all, would be still, under the trolley. I used to think she was autistic as she did not interact much with her siblings....”