A Pet Turtle for Owen: Part III
Fast forward two days. I am folding laundry in my bedroom. Owen arrives home from school and quickly races upstairs to take the turtle out of the tank. I hear him remove the lid and then quickly scamper back down the stairs. Suddenly, the room becomes filled with the most pungent, God-awful, stomach-turning stench you can imagine. If you’ve ever walked into a barn full of cows or stood outside a busy Manhattan restaurant near the garbage cans in August, you might be able to begin to understand what this smell was like. Except that the stink that was permeating the entire second...
Read MoreA Pet Turtle for Owen: Part II
The next thing that is critical to understand about a pet turtle (or at least a Red Eared Slider) is that they really need a filter. Upon making a trip to my local pet mega-store, I was told that Red Eared Sliders “poop a lot” and that the tank water can become dirty pretty quickly without a decent filter. This fact became evident after the turtle lived in a filter-free tank for about 72 hours. It was becoming difficult to believe that I was single-handedly responsible for the murky broth of a turtle toilet that was now situated in the corner of Owen and his brother Jack’s...
Read MoreA Pet Turtle for Owen: Part I
Overall, the snapping turtle excursion on Nantucket turned out to be a very memorable part of Memorial Day weekend, especially for my son, Owen. He is the kind of kid who is likely to jump up and tell you the differences among the 17 species of snakes that make New York State their home, whether or not any of them are venomous, or rattle off some key foods an Italian Wall Lizard might enjoy, like crickets. Even though the only contact I plan to have with a creature like a snake involves the purchase of a pricey handbag or pair of shoes, I still try to be encouraging. With that in mind, we...
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