saturday, while sitting calmly on my couch during an afternoon alone, i heard the door swing open with tim nearly screaming with excitement. "lindsay, come here," he said in sheer joy.
"i just caught a turtle."
being the one ridiculously scared of anything that moves or simply the thought of something moving, i immediately kicked my legs up onto the couch as if this turtle was the new breed that could zip across the room in a mere flash.
just as i began to freak out, and at this point, without a clue of where this turtle was, tim whiped out a taco bell bag into the air as if it was a sword and he must fight off a dragon. with a smile and a "come here, lindsay!" i think to myself, "dear God in heaven, let this be a joke."
no joke. out crawled a box turtle bigger than the size of my hand.
cue freak out mode.
of course, as i screamed in panic this little guy just looked around in sheer disbelief that he was just abducted by aliens all the while trying to cross the road. maverick my kitten came strolling into the room, only to hop up on his counter, turned his dominion, and gaze akwardly at this newfound object. as he neared it, the turtle ducked its tiny head into its shell and my cat took off running.
apparently, my cat has adopted my version of dealing with animals. i pray we never encounter a mouse, should he be that scared of a turtle.
needless to say, tim wanted to add the turtle to our homemade petsmart of two fish and two cats. yet when i calmly explained to him that one, the dinosaur cannot stay because i am scared of it and two, we have nowhere to put it, the excitement from tim's rescue quickly melted away.
in a mere attempt to not ruin his day, but allow the little guy not to suffer either, i suggested to tim that we put him outside on the back porch. i remember when lauren and i moved into our apartment a year ago, we wondered why our back porch was enclosed by a half wall of bricks so high you could not see over it if you were sitting. at this moment, i knew.
it was to keep a turtle.
breaking my saturday afternoon laziness, i went into figure-out-how-to-make-a-turtle-survive-on-your-back-porch mode, including googling about the care of box turtles. within a few short minutes, our porch had turned itno turtle terrarium, complete with a swimming pool, wading pool, ramp for easy access, a box of mulch in which to sleep, and a pile of fresh bananas, lettuce and moist cat food.
what turtle wouldn't want to spend his days here?
for the next few days, the turtle got name, rocky, and the cats became the bodyguards. day in and day out, maverick and penny went from room to room, taking turns watching the turtle through the sliding glass doors. should rocky move or get to close to the kittens, everyone in the apartment knew by the hissing and growling from the two.
a few days went by and we started to realize that rocky wasn't eating. he spent most of the day in his box, very rarely enjoying the luxury of his swimming pools and exquiste cusine. i started to feel bad for the little guy and so i approached tim with the proposal of letting rocky go.
initially, he appeared very sad as if his latest toy had broken. i felt bad for bringing it up, so i thought i should let rocky stay. but the feeling never went away and again i felt like rocky needed a better, open home. this time, tim understood and we agreed to send him and his box off to a better place.
late one night, as rocky slept in his box of mulch, tim picked it up and carried it outside. we took the box and gently tuck it underneath a row of hedges and said our goodbyes.
for a minute i thought, maybe he'll come back. maybe he'll learn to like his box; maybe this is where he feels safe. when we returned a few hours later, he was gone.
even a few day later, the kittens still look out the window, wondering where the weird and slow creature went. they walk from room to room, peeking under the blinds trying to get one more glimpse. then, almost as if saddened, they would turn and walk away.
things quickly returned to normal, yet rocky lingered in our minds.
and truth of the matter is, he probably always will. whenever there's a story to tell, whenever i see another turtle crossing the street, or simply whenever i start to tell my children about how to care for a pet -- i think i'll always go back to the day when rocky brought some extra love and attention into our home.
