Dear Members and Friends:

Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, October 19th from 1:30 until 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library located on the corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road. Exit I-5 (north or south) and go EAST for a few blocks. This is one of our most important meetings - pre-hibernation. Feel free to bring your pets for a free checkup. You can let others admire your turtles, but please keep them in a box. Diseases are easily spread and the stress of the event can bring on a runny nose. Turtles and tortoises are completely aware of what is going on at all times and are uneasy when taken out of their normal surroundings. Father Dimitri will be on hand to help and add his expert advice and insight and I will be there to add my feminine point of view. You will find out that there are many ways to keep a tortoise healthy. The three rules to remember are: proper food, proper peaceful environment and protection from predators and that includes family pets and children. Richard Spekner said he would try to come to the meeting and give another talk about exotic water turtles. Let's hope he can make it.

Our TURTLERAMA was the best ever. I believe it was because half of it was held outside. The trees have grown considerably and gave us a beautiful shady area to set up pens and keep the turtles and tortoises out of the air-conditioned meeting room. There was more room indoors for our displays and demonstrations and literature and the visitors were not crowded together as they have been in the past. We had a great selection of chelonians for people to look at. Thank you to Bobbi, Liz, Denise, Craig, Sharon, Fritz, Suzanne, Nadine and her friend, Hidde, Jennifer, Joy, Father Dimitri, Shirley, Lew and the Sadler family. Special thanks to Linda, my 'bodyguard' who also did a great job with the mop and broom after the show was over and to Kathie who drove all the way from Alabama to bring Ninja, her huge Sulcata, to the Turtlerama. Please excuse me if I've omitted anyone. Let me know and I'll include you in the next newsletter.

We have been invited to participate in the annual Pet Expo at Cal Expo. I couldn't do it this year due to being asked at the last minute. If we want to be included next year, I'll need a gang of helpers since it is a three-day event. We can display critters and sell stuff, but do we really want to? Isn't the Turtlerama enough exposure? Let's talk about it.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING
AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE POT LUCK!!

Snail Talk: Not sure whether the snails you feed your turtles have ingested pesticides?

Put your collected snails into a gallon ice cream bucket with a snap lid. Punch holes in the lid. Cover the bottom of the bucket with corn meal. Put a small margarine container or mealworm container of water in the middle of the corn meal and seal the snails in the bucket. Leave for four days. The snails' feces will be yellow and any impurities in their bodies will have been purged and you can feed them to your turtles. Or put the snails into a smaller sealable container and freeze; they will pull into their shells as they die. Store them up to a year. Excellent when thawed and offered as winter food when fresh snails are not available. (reprinted from the World Chelonian Trust newsletter, July 2002, Number 3 issue) Write to them at: World Chelonian Trust, PMB #292, 685 Bridge Street Plaza, Owatonna, MN 55060 for subscription information. It is a very informative newsletter.

After you're gone…………I've been mentioning at our last few meetings, the importance of leaving instructions regarding your pets in case you suddenly are not there anymore. Several of our club members have died this year. Most recently it was Virginia Boggs. She had been a member since 1983. When I saw the obituary I said to Bill, “Here comes Wallis” and sure enough, a few days later, Virginia's husband was at my door holding Wallis, the box turtle. I am sure Virginia would have wanted me to care for Wallis, but then, who really knows? For starters, take photos of your pets right now and put them on 3X5 cards and write down the pet's name and what it eats. That will help if there is an immediate problem. Then write down what you would like to have happen to your pets in the future. There's a great article about this topic in the July 2002 issue of the World Chelonian Trust newsletter mentioned above. Unlike cats and dogs, turtles and tortoises often outlive us. Please do your best to see that they continue to be cared for correctly.

It has been an extraordinary summer, with more turtles and tortoises attending summer camp than ever before. Some have come here for extended stays due to family problems and I have labeled them and the fun begins when their label falls off. I do have separate areas in the yard for various species but when the temperature soars, they all go into high gear and start pushing, climbing on one another in a frenzy to go where they don't belong. For example, one hot day, I went out to feed the water turtles and was shocked by what I saw. It was a male Russian tortoise swimming with the water turtles. Tortoises can't swim! They sink to the bottom and drown. This guy was swimming and not for fun. He was trying to stay alive and I know he was happy to be out of what could have been his watery grave. He had probably just fallen in a moment earlier or was pushed in because tortoises don't normally enter the water. He needed supportive care for two weeks and I won't let him hibernate. He managed to get to the pond by climbing over a bunch of tall bricks meant to keep him and his buddies out of the pond area.

Speedy, the tortoise with the sprained or broken leg which I fixed using panty-hose was returned to The Bunker because at home, he refused to eat and was lethargic. After placing him with the other tortoises, an immediate transformation took place. His head began bobbing, he became completely alert and his full appetite returned. I guess he missed his friends and was no longer content to be an ‘only tortoise'………..

Just Jim the Jackass has been secluded in the Greenhouse since the Turtlerama when he terrorized a club members' Sulcata and Leopard tortoises she had put into the pen with him, not realizing what he was like. Just Jim Junior keeps hammering away on other tortoises of any species, except his own kind. My neighbors think I am constantly repairing the fences. There is a third male Greek, Just Jim the Jerk, who is learning from the others to create havoc in the yard. He looks bad, all lumpy with his shell pushed in on one side, running about the yard with his head held up high, looking for his next victim. I love these feisty guys. Tortoises with attitude! They do spend most of the summer in the Greenhouse, however, to spare the others and themselves.

The other night, Bill (non-turtle-loving-husband) came downstairs to tell me an egg had exploded in the incubator near his computer. He was sitting quietly working when he suddenly heard a loud pop followed by a foul odor. He thought something electrical had blown but didn't see anything - and then he remembered what was in the room with him. I took the incubator into the garage and cleaned up the mess (Angie, it was one of your eggs) and returned the rest to the incubator. That smell is unforgettable.

Ty the snapping turtle is still here. A club member felt so sorry for him that she bought him a pool of his own. Thank You Sonia!! Surprisingly, he cannot climb out of it, however, it is a little more difficult to keep clean than the garbage pail was, but he has more room to move about. I am hoping that he will be able to leave California before too long. There is a hint that he may become part of a reptile exhibit at Marine World Africa USA in Vallejo. Keep your fingers crossed. Then we can visit him from time to time.

While I was writing this column, I went outside to check on the critters and spotted a deep hole in the corner of the yard. Darn. Fat Betty did it again!! She is at the bottom of the hole. I got flat down on the ground and stuck my arm all the way inside and even tho I can touch her shell, I can't pull her out. She has wedged herself in tight. Now I am filthy AND mad!! I dug out some of the dirt to try to get to her but it didn't work. I don't want the other tortoises joining her - so I've put a screen loosely over the top and can only hope she comes up when I'm around so I can encourage her to hibernate in a safer place. I can't imagine her surviving in that deep hole when it rains, however, she goes 'somewhere' every winter and comes out ok. I hope I'll have good news to report in the next newsletter. Since she is our meteorologist, perhaps we are in for a long cold winter? After all, it's 100 degrees outside. Why is she underground now?

Two more tortoises have been found using the “Look Northeast” method. Keep this in mind if any of your pets climb out when you're not looking. One of the tortoises, Katey, a Russian, had climbed out of her pen, gone to the northeast corner of the yard, spotted a tiny hole, got out through the hole and into the neighbors yard and continued on to the northeast corner of the neighbors yard. I'm glad the owner emailed me about the escapee so I could help her find it. It sure is a good feeling when you find your pet again.