Heroes in a Halfshell, Turtle Power!

I couldn't resist starting my post about our turtles with a quote from our childhoods - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were awesome.

Anyway, here is the story of how two baby red-eared sliders found their way to our dining room table.

Picture this: I'm in a co-worker's classroom and I see a small tank with turtles. "How cute," I tell her. She tells me the story of how she ended up with them. Her cousin's adult turtles had laid eggs and lo and behold, there were baby turtles they didn't have space for and after a party and a few beers, my friend ended up taking these two cuties home.

A week or so went by, and my teacher friend decided she didn't want the turtles in the classroom because baby turtles tend to carry salmonela and she didn't want her students exposed. But the longer they were at her apartment, the more she realized that she couldn't take care of them either - she would forget to feed them and felt bad.

Somehow, someway, when she asked me if Joe and I wanted some turtles, I said yes (after checking with Joe of course). So, the turtles came home with me a few days later, complete with EVERYTHING she had purchased for them, pretty nice deal.

When I brought them home, they fit in a rectangle Ziplock container. So tiny and cute!

Once home, transported in their tiny Ziplock container we set up their little tank on a cabinet we had. We thoughtfully named them Wyatt and Doc, after characters in Joe's favorite Western movie, Tombstone.

Cutie turtle climbing a "large" rock.

These things grew and grew and grew and needed a bigger tank. The second tank still fit on the cabinet. My nieces and nephews love to come over and feed the turtles or hold them.

Wyatt has always been much bigger than Doc.

They got so big, I had to put them in the bathtub!

One day, I was cleaning their tank and put them in that pyrex container seen above. Not a second after I did this were they running around on the floor.....New tactic - when I clean the tank, Wyatt and Doc get to take a mini-vacation in the bathtub.

Aww, sisterly love.

Now Wyatt and Doc are about two years old, and we've come to discover they are both girls. Sorry ladies, we are not changing your names :). Above is a photo of their favorite past time, "sunning" themselves on their dock. This is a rare photo. Usually when I see them like this and try to sneak up on them to take a picture, they jump into the water and hide. Thanks girls.

Cleaning turtle tanks is fun!

Here you see my newest idea - having my nieces who love the turtles so much help me clean the tank every month. We really need a bigger filter, but it's not in the budget at the moment. These girls are such a big help to their Auntie Lo: we've made it a competition. The last time we cleaned the tank it took a total of 55 minutes start to finish. Next time, we'll see if we can beat our time, and celebrate with a treat!

Just keep swimming :)

Our turtles are great pets and good entertainment :). Just the other night we went out to sushi and brought the leftover sashimi. They think this is fantastic. They will push each other out of the way to get at it. It is hysterical. Next time, maybe I'll get an action shot of eating sushi out of Joe's hand!