We had our painted turtle, Clemmy, for 18 years. I fished him out of a badly polluted stream when he was still a baby. He wasn’t in very good shape, but a diet of hamburger meat and other goodies soon put him to rights.
Painted turtles have a reputation for being skittish, but Clemmy was as tame as could be. He used to stretch out his neck so you could scratch his lower jaw. Fed by hand every day, usually with whatever we were having for supper: that did the trick. If we were having scallops or lobster, he’d climb out of his tank and make a beeline for the table. He should have known we wouldn’t forget to save some for him.
Once upon a time Patty put a little turtle figurine in his tank, and was shocked when he went into a courtship ritual with it. Live and learn.
And of course we’d take him on vacation with us, wherever we went.
I’m missing him, just now.
Great Clemmy story for a Sunday. When my wife and I started our collection of everything bunny we ended up with what we call the southwest bunny museum. Our neighbors call our place the Bunny House. So, to counter all this I started a collection of turtles, and our largest bathroom is all turtles from Turtle Crossing sign to cute figurines. In our living room we even have a chess board with a rabbit and turtle going at it. Of course, “the turtle and the hare” is one of our favorite stories.
Patty used to have an enormous turtle collection–never did count ’em.
Wow, I’ve never seen a turtle like this before. I thought I’d seen everything when I was a kid and ran around through the woods looking at everything.
Painted turtles are very common, east of the Mississippi. I don’t know if there are any Out West. Most ponds around here have one or two of them.
Even the simplest of animals have a personality. It’s amazing how easy it is to get attached to an animal.
I wouldn’t call a turtle “simple.”