Dear Members and Friends:

Our mid-winter meeting which I've dubbed the “Slumberama” will be held on Saturday, January 19th at the Belle Cooledge Library from 1 until 4. The library is located on the corner of Fruitridge Road and South Land Park Drive. It is easiest to get there from I-5. Take the Fruitridge Road exit and go east for a few blocks. So far, no speaker has been scheduled and since this is a very casual meeting, we can break off into different discussion groups and I'll bring along a few of Andy Highfield's videos if anyone is interested in watching. Let us know how hibernation is coming along and how your non-hibernating turtles and tortoises and hatchlings are doing. If time permits, Joy Cornette or I will read “The Old Turtle” to the children and the grownups can listen as well. Please try to bring your funniest or oddest turtle related Christmas gift to the meeting. I'm sure you all got more than your share of them. Of course, if you got doubles, you can always donate them to the raffle or sale table.

We had three wonderful speakers at our crowded Fall meeting. Sally from Grass Valley discussed her ups and downs regarding her desert tortoises, how she got started and her current status with them, which was on a positive note. We've all had our share of troubles with desert tortoises and sharing the information certainly helps prevent future problems.

Joy Cornette gave a very informative talk and slide demonstration regarding the new Ultra Violet bulbs out in the market today. Zoo Med sent me a sample of their new sun bulb after reading in our newsletter that there would be a demo at the meeting so it looks like we are not all destined to rely on Vita Lites for our full spectrum lighting.

Richard Spekner also came to the meeting from his home in Brentwood and brought along a wide variety of exotic water turtles, each one unique and utterly charming and happy and healthy. Richard is very knowledgeable regarding the care and feeding of each turtle, in fact Richard has a pet shop in Antioch called PET'acular EXOTICS. The address is: 1312 Sunset Drive, Antioch, CA 94509. They are working on a website and we'll let you know when it is ready for viewing. The store carries many different species of turtles and tortoises including S.E. Asians, Indonesians, Cherry head redfoots and even Burmese tortoises. Richard will go out of his way to help you with any problems you are having in a very competent and often humorous manner. We'll try to have him speak at a future meeting. The store also carried other reptiles and tropical and saltwater fish.

Thank you so much for your beautiful Christmas cards, many of which were filled with dues and donations and are appreciated more than you will ever know. Some clubs are demanding a $50 donation from a person donating an animal to them to cover vet bills, etc. Thanks to all of your donations, we would NEVER have to resort to doing something like that which could lead to animals simply being discarded or allowed to die because the person does not have the money to spare. The Turtles and I wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thank you all for your continued support.

SEE YOU AT THE SLUMBERAMA!!

UPDATES:

The large snapping turtle living in the garbage pail in my back yard is continuing to thrive in spite of her environment. I'm waiting for a suitable home to become available out of California. She can't be mailed. She's too big. She's also very spoiled now and if you approach the garbage pail and look in on a nice warm day, she will want to eat and will unexpectedly leap up and scare you to death. Just ask Craig Gifford who innocently looked in. The smile on her face soon changed to sudden fear as she jumped back and screamed. I enjoyed it. The desert tortoise with the broken leg seems to be almost completely healed. He is still here at The Bunker because I didn't think it would be wise for him to hibernate. Did I tell you that the family dog picked him up by the leg and shook him violently. OUCH! I know you love your doggies, but never trust them alone with your turtles and tortoises. Not even for a minute.

Around the time of the last meeting in October, it was time to put the Leopard tortoises and a few Elongatas back into the greenhouse for the winter. They do enjoy their winters in there, feeling the warmth of the heat pad on their tummies. Since it was still fairly warm during the day, I was in the habit of turning off the pad in the morning and turning it back on at night. Halloween night arrived, with a beautiful full moon glowing in the sky. The children were Trick or Treating and it was a fun filled night for all. After the doorbell stopped ringing, I went about my usual chores. I washed my hair and wrapped it in a towel. I also put on a nightgown, made a cup of hot tea and sat at the kitchen table with my bare feet propped up on a chair and started to read the paper while waiting for my hair to dry. It was after 10 pm by this time and quite cold outside. I sipped my tea and at some point my thought processes finally kicked into gear. I remembered that the heat was off in the greenhouse. It only takes a few minutes to run outside, turn on the switch and run back inside again. One of my cats always accompanies me. So out I went, with wet hair and a nylon nightgown and bare feet. I opened the greenhouse door and almost fell over Blondie, the Leopard tortoise who was sitting on a nest she had just completed digging and I could see 6 eggs in the hole. As usual I stood there not knowing what to do. Should I leave her alone? No, it was too cold. Was she done laying the eggs? I had to take a chance. I removed her from the nest and put her on the heat mat and then in this flimsy nightgown, wet hair (the towel had fallen off by this time) and barefoot with a cat purring madly around my legs I bent down and carefully took the six very slimy eggs out of the mud hole nest, put them into my hand and then ran back across the lawn to the house (yes, I had turned the heat pad on). I washed the eggs off in lukewarm water and placed them into the incubator. I then had to clean myself off and went to bed and turned the electric blanket on high to warm up. After all of this trouble, I hope the eggs hatch. I'll let you know.

A lot of activity is taking place inside of my house this winter. I've had red-eared sliders turned in before, but never this many. I'd say there's no more room at the inn! My husband asked me why so many people give them up. It's mainly because the turtles were given to a child as a pet. The child then grows up and goes away either to college or gets married or simply leaves home and the parents do not wish to spend the rest of their lives taking care of the turtles. Almost all of them have been kept in an aquarium, therefore, they can't go outside during the winter because they would die. They have to remain indoors until springtime. It's a lot of work taking care of these guys. Water turtles make a mess of water quickly and the smell is awful. Aquariums are difficult to clean so I prefer plastic containers, which are easier to dump out and refill. But I'll deal with it until I can find good homes for them. Just about everyone wants a desert tortoise but nobody wants a red-eared slider. Please consider adopting one or more of them, but only if they will live outside. Aquariums are for fish!