Zana, “Really!!?”
Me Saturday morning after Zana scored the first goal of the game in the 2nd quarter, “Great job honey! If you score another one I’ll get you TWO turtles!”
It worked. Zana responded with another goal in the second half and her team won the game 2-0. That afternoon we brought home the 20-gal tank with two young water turtles, once Bubba & Edgar, now Raindrop & Teeter, who now call the kids room home.
Little did she know, I was going to get the turtles anyway since my colleague who is moving across the country was looking for a new home for them and I graciously offered to take them. The motivational incentive worked and she played one of her best games ever. Their AYSO season ended with a decent 4-3-3 record but coach Ram is still having weekly open practices for anyone who wants to come to keep them from getting totally rusty during the off-season.
About Bubba-Raindrop and Edgar-Teeter, they were dropped off at a pet shop where my colleague's daughter was working but the pet shop doesn't accept donations of reptiles, so she brought them home. We don't know exactly how old they are or their exact species but we're going to guess they're appx 6 years old now and with a life expectancy of 30-50 years they'll be with us for a while. Not sure how much longer they'll make it in their 20-gal tank since they are already about 6" long but we're keeping them on their previous owner's 3-day/week feeding schedule to keep them from growing too fast. They have probably grown about 1" in the past 5 years. I sure hope now that they are a little older they slow down. I'm reading the Turtles for Dummies book they came with and getting educated on reptile care.
We think Raindrop is female because her nails are about 1" long needles (which quite frankly freak me out but are great for nesting) while Teeter's are fairly stubby in comparison so we're assuming he's male. However, they won't reach maturity until they're about 25 years old so we'll be in the dark for some time still. They aren't the funnest pets since they do bite and don't like to be touched much but they do add a nice ambient water sound and new dynamic live element to the room so at least the novelty of having them is fun for them. Let's hope it lasts and the kids learn more about pet responsibility without anyone getting harmed.
Now we are a two-parent, two-child, two-dog, two-turtle family. Here are the happy new proud parents. Zeth was in a cheeky mood making funny faces & sporting his Pull-up. I'm happy to report that he has had 3 nights w/o a Pull-up and no accidents this week. I think we're nearly in the clear with his potty training! Yay Zeth! YAY Me!
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