Dear Members and Friends:

Our Fall meeting will be held on Saturday, OCTOBER 21st at the Belle Cooledge Library from 1:30 until 4 pm. The library is located on the corner of South Land Park Drive and Fruitridge Road. Sharon Chancellor will return as our guest speaker and will give a presentation on her recent experiences with a colony of Cuora galbinifrons. Hold on to your seats for this one!! Sharon also shared a story with me regarding two hatchling tortoises. They were carried off by scrub jays because their outdoor container was not secure. Two MONTHS later the neighbor on the left and the neighbor on the right found the tortoises in their yards. Isn't that incredible luck? Imagine surviving being snatched up by a bird and then falling from the sky (and not landing on a busy road) and then living "in the wild" until discovery. Incredible!

This will be our last meeting before Christmas and I'll try to have a nice assortment of items for sale, raffle and auction. Please feel free to donate your excess quality turtle items and a million thanks to those who already have. It is greatly appreciated. It is also our POT-LUCK meeting and your delicious food donations will be enjoyed by all. You supply the snacks (I'm bringing the chocolate turtles) and we will supply the soft drinks. Help cleaning up afterwards will also be appreciated.

Bring your turtles and tortoises for their pre-hibernation check-ups. Keep them in boxes so that there is no spread of disease in the room. There will be turtles for sale also. Shirley has Reeve's hatchlings ($30 ea) and Hidde & Akiko have Florida Red bellies, red ears, Florida soft shells and Southern painted turtles. There will be tortoises for adoption and sale and I hope you find what you have been looking and wishing for! JoEllen has a 100 gallon aquarium with a ramp and basking shelf to donate but would like $50 for the sturdy office credenza it is sitting on complete with bookshelves and drawers. Her turtles have moved outdoors. Sounds like a good deal to me for those having to keep critters indoors.

I've got a new problem at The Bunker. Several years ago I had a huge maple tree removed. It had a 14 foot girth - we are talking B I G. I had the stump munched and after that, the ground felt kind of spongy. I didn't know why. I know now. The large roots are rotting under the ground leaving behind huge tunnels much to the delight of all of the tortoises. They are busy digging the tunnels even deeper and seem to enjoy sliding down into the holes and then climbing out again. I'm not quite sure what to do about this situation. I can't have them hibernating in the ground. They will drown. Should I get a load of dirt delivered? What if there are babies under the ground? What will happen to them? How deep will these tunnels go? HELP!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

It was an uneventful summer at The Bunker. The residents enjoyed warm sunny days and mild nights (except for that cold snap during the State Fair.) There is a newcomer here. His name is Chip. A few months ago, I noticed Cosette, a 5 year old Hermann's tortoise, trying to dig a nest. Cosette is not fully grown and I refer to her as a pre-teenager and I've never seen her with any of the males. One day as I was on my "rounds", I noticed two tiny very white eggs partially sticking out of the ground in the area where she had been digging. I figured the eggs were no good since they were in full sunlight, so I simply plopped them on top of the box turtle eggs I had incubating inside the house. Exactly two months later, when I peeked in I was so surprised to see a little head sticking out of the egg. It looked like a Hermann head. I was very excited. When he finally emerged a day or so later, there was no doubt that this was Cosette's child. I had to name him Chip because he definitely is a chip off the old block. Cosette belongs to Donna and Bryce Ford who live in Syracuse, NY. They decided Cosette would do better living in California. I agree, don't you? I'll bring Chip and Cosette to the meeting for you to meet and admire.

MR. GREENE'S ADVENTURE - by Charlene Welty

Mr. Greene is our prized elongated tortoise. But recently we thought we would never see him again.

He joined our family 14 years ago when we rescued him from a local pet store. The owner had him confined to a wire cage with bunnies who nibbled at his shell. It was cold too. Needless to say, I couldn't get him out of there fast enough.

We had cared for desert tortoises before, but never an elongated tortoise, so naturally I called Felice for instructions. We built him a large outdoor pen for the summer, though we bring him indoors at night to protect him from cool night air and nocturnal predators. Felice advised that elongated tortoises do not hibernate, so we let him wander around in the house during winter.

Late one afternoon in mid-June, Mr. Greene suddenly vanished. My husband, Bill, had gone out to Mr. Greene's pen to bring him indoors, but he quickly returned. "Mr. Greene is gone!" he exclaimed. I was sure Mr. Greene was just hiding somewhere in his pen because it just was not possible for him to open the gate! After all, he had NEVER done that before.

I raced outside to his pen and searched and searched - no Mr. Greene and the gate to his pen was open. My heart just sank - how do you find a tortoise who looks like a rock? As I peered through the darkness I wondered how we'd ever find him in our five acres of trees, poison oak and tall weeds!

Immediately, Bill and I grabbed flashlights and began our search. We continued to search every inch of the property for the next 6 days. But Mr. Greene was nowhere to be found. I could not eat or sleep worrying about him; there was no telling what trouble he could be in. And I started to imagine the most terrible things.

Then it dawned on me - call Felice! If anyone could help us find him it would be her! "Felice, Mr. Greene has disappeared," I cried. "We have searched everywhere. What should we do?" Felice confidently replied, "Look northeast! Tortoises travel with the sun at their back. Since he escaped in the afternoon, he probably headed in that direction."

We resumed our search, focusing on the northeast section of our property, but sadly, to no avail. Four more days passed, the weather started getting warmer and I said, "Well, maybe he dug in somewhere and now that it's warmer, he might come out." It was wishful thinking - but I had to grab onto something!

That evening I was in the backyard and feeling very depressed. I leaned against the fence and scanned our property as I had done hundreds of times before. Suddenly, I noted a mound that I hadn't seen before. I caught my breath - could it be Mr. Greene? I threw open the gate and ran up the hill - and sure enough, there he was. "Mr. Greene!!!" I shouted. But my joy quickly turned to dismay. When I picked him up his skin was gray and he didn't move. I thought he was dead. Then, he twitched and poked his sweet little head out from his shell! He had a foxtail in one eye, his shell was covered with dirt and he had definitley lost weight. But he was ALIVE!

I shrieked, "Honey, I found Mr. Greene and he's OK". We quickly got him inside and put him into the bathrub with about an inch of warm water. He drank and drank and drank. Slowly his skin color improved. Then we carefully removed the foxtail from his eye. There was no injury.

I immediately called Felice and left a message, "Felice - we found Mr. Greene! And it was because of the advice you gave us that we have him back. He was under the tree that was nearest to his enclosure - about 50 feet away, and yes, directly NORTHEAST of where he escaped!"

Mr. Greene is back to normal now and we have a lock on the gate, but we will never forget those desperate 10 days.

Thanks Felice - from all of us!! (MY PLEASURE)