Dear Members and Friends:

Our FALL meeting will be held on Saturday, October 18th from 1:30 until 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library located on the corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road. From I-5, north or south, go EAST on Fruitridge Road. I've got a special surprise for all of you. Kathie Harine has said she will drive here from her home in Alabama and bring Ninja, the Sulcata, to the meeting and talk about him. Kathie has had Ninja for many years and I believe he weighed about 12 pounds when she got him and he is now a hefty 65-70 pounds or more. Kathie is planning to move back to our area and we'll be happy to have her and her assorted turtles and tortoises close by again.

There will be lots to talk about at the meeting including pre-hibernation problems, hatchling care and how to care for sick turtles over the winter months. Also, some of you prefer not to let your turtles and tortoises hibernate and we can give you some advice about that as well. Feel free to bring your pet for a casual checkup but if it is already hibernating, please do not wake it up. And don't pass the turtles around the room, ok?

The Fall meeting is also our Pot Luck meeting so bring your favorite dish, dips, chips, cookies, cake, whatever you like and the club will supply the coffee, tea and soft drinks and turtle chocolates. I'd also like to have a Halloween contest. Dress your turtle up in a spooky costume and try to win a prize. Let me know if you want to be a judge. And speaking of prizes, we can always use QUALITY items for our raffle. Look through your treasures and perhaps you have doubles or items you no longer want. The Takemoto-Weerts family recently donated their mom's turtle collectibles after she died and we are very appreciative to them and also Glenda Jacobson for her generous donation of turtle items. They are greatly appreciated and help fund the club so we can keep the dues very low so everyone who wants to can become a member.

The TURTLERAMA was a huge success and thanks to all who made it great including, Suzanne, Hidde, Marion, Pam, John and Jerri, Sharon, Joy, Shirley, Julie, Lew, Ed Franke, the adorable Gable family, Craig, Kim, Chris and I'm sure there are others - if you'll let me know, I'll include your name in the next newsletter. The Summer meeting was held indoors much to the delight of our overheated club members. Thanks to those who attended on such a hot day expecting to be outdoors. You are a brave bunch! We were very lucky to be able to go indoors when the room suddenly became available.

We hear from our readers: Norm Wilson wrote (regarding tortoise egg laying) that it is common for a few eggs to become cracked either from hitting a small rock while being laid or hitting another egg as it falls into the nest. Sometimes eggs come out with a “pressure fracture”. These eggs would be quickly destroyed in the wild, but if you clean the egg up and apply a good coating of GE SILICONE II Sealant over the fracture, the egg may be saved. On September 12, Norm reported that two of the first eggs that hatched were the ones that had been cracked - and decided it was time to tell all of us about his discovery.

It was another very strange summer, starting off with rather cold weather and finally settling into a comfortable warmth and the turtles and tortoises began acting normally after refusing to eat or even come out for the day when they thought winter had returned. I had a larger pond area built next to the Greenhouse and it is working out better than expected. TRU GREEN LAND CARE did the work for me in 104 degree temperatures and I was very pleased with the result. The turtles acclimated to their new pond immediately and appear to be 'playing' as they climb out and jump back in, some leaping off of their bridge. I installed a canopy over the area for the work crew and since it looked very nice afterwards, I left it in place. Of course it will probably blow off during a winter storm so I have alerted hubby Bill to the fact that he will soon be building a wooden structure over the pond. To clean the pond I put a pump from Sears into it and within 20 minutes the old water is out and the clean water is in.

The Asian box turtles living at The Bunker have changed this year. They are beautiful turtles with sleek yellow heads, pink cheeks and mahogany colored shells. Normally they are shy but this year there has been a complete transformation and it happens each night as I give them a rain shower. First one will come out then another and another. I believe there are 6 males and two females. Pretty soon they are all out, wiggling themselves in the spray and drinking the water. The females are very casual, walking slowly about, not paying any attention to what is going on very close by. The males are like a marching band. They line up behind the females, slowly advancing in unison and then they do something very weird. They quickly scoot backwards! Two steps forward and three steps straight back like a choreographed dance line. Whatever they are doing, it is very amusing to watch and if guests come over, I turn on their shower so the show can begin! I've had most of them for at least 15 years and have only hatched one baby, so I guess they are too busy dancing to do much else. They eat dog food, bananas, corn on the cob, worms, snails and even trout chow that bounces their way as I toss it in for the water turtles. They are very hardy and were the first ones to wake up soon after our hard freeze in 1990. If you ever have a chance to own one of these, go for it!

A tragedy was averted at The Bunker by an observant visitor who said, “Is that turtle supposed to be in that bucket of water?” I spun around. It was Cooper, the small Leopard tortoise (who was covered in poo last winter). He was one lucky guy. I had placed some grass clippings in the bucket the day before and I guess the rain filled up the bucket and he was sitting on top of the grass, wet, but not under the water. I took him out and dried him off, checked him over, he was ok, and he went on his way. But the question is: HOW DID HE GET INTO THE BUCKET?!! It's another Bunker mystery. If tortoises could talk, eh?