Dear Members and Friends:

Our Summer meeting will be held on Saturday, July 19th from 1:30 until 4 pm at the Belle Cooledge Library located on the corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road. We won't be able to have the meeting indoors but we've been given permission to have it outdoors. We'll either be under the trees outside of the meeting room or in the park a few feet away. Please bring a blanket or a chair. The club will provide cool drinks and snacks. In the unlikely event it rains, the meeting will be cancelled.

To fill the time, I'd like to have 10 members give 10 minutes of your time to talk about the turtle or tortoise of your choice. The talk could be about a tortoise you've always wanted to have, one that is very special, or it could be a eulogy for a lost pet. We are all there to listen and learn and to share happiness and sorrow. We also need to discuss the TURTLERAMA which will be held on August 16. I will need you to sign up and let me know if you will be able to display your turtles, or have educational material for the public to view. I need lots of helpers as well, to keep the room as clean as possible and bring refreshments to the exhibitors. We'll have some of the exhibits outdoors as we did last year which gave us more room for indoor displays. Please pick up the Turtlerama flyers at the meeting to distribute around town or I can mail some to you.

What a horrible Spring we had to endure. Until the middle of May, the weather was cold, windy and rainy and one day a tornado warning was posted for good measure. Without any warm temperatures, tomatoes didn't grow and turtles began to get sick. Many of them came out of hibernation and because of the cold days and nights, they were not eating and the weaker ones perished. Russian tortoises, however, seemed to like the weather and I had several people report their Russians had laid eggs in February and March.

Thanks to all who came to the Spring meeting. The day was very rainy and windy and I had my doubts as to whether or not anyone would show up - and you didn't let me down. Father Dimitri gave a very informative presentation on nutrition and mating practices of various species. He also shared a recipe with us that I would like to share with all of you. Several times a year, serve your turtles and tortoises an omelet. Put 6 eggs, shells and all, into a blender and mix thoroughly, then fry the mixture on both sides and when cool, break off little pieces and serve it to your pets. They will all love it become healthier due to the fresh ingredients. Thanks, Dimitri, for helping us keep our turtles and tortoises in tip top condition. What would we do without you?

SEE YOU ALL AT THE MEETING!!

SUMMER REMINDERS

Use a 'mister' in the outdoor enclosures for your box turtles, water turtles and tropical tortoises. Do not use it around desert tortoises, leopard tortoises, Russian tortoises or Sulcatas.

If you feed meat to your box and water turtles and you don't clean up the leftovers after dark, the predators will come and eat the leftovers and probably your turtles as well. BE ALERT!

For the first time, the residents of the Greenhouse remained inside until the end of May, four to six weeks longer than normal and it's never good for them to be imprisoned for 8 months. Everyone survived in spite of some gruesome events within the glass walls. I spoke about it at the April meeting and your fellow club members urged me to share these facts with you in the newsletter. I hope you have a barf bag handy.

In winter, leopard tortoises have no access to grass in their diet and when they have a bowel movement, it is in the form of green diarrhea and a LOT of it. There is a smaller leopard tortoise in the greenhouse, around 6 inches long. He likes to be with the bigger ones, he eats and sleeps close to them. One morning, as I did my 'rounds', (holding my nose, of course), I was concerned because I didn't see him anywhere. I reluctantly got down on my hands and knees to get a better look and I was sorry that I did. Behind the largest leopard tortoise was a suspicious mound of green poo, and completely enclosed in the green poo was Cooper, the small tortoise. I guess he was the victim of Blondie's explosive blast, which, if anyone remembers, happened once before when I took a Sulcata to Grand Court Assisted Living Facility. By the way, they recently renamed and remodeled the facility. I feel somehow responsible. Little Cooper was cleaned up but never did learn from his smelly experience.

State Scientists Day was bright and sunny and I brought 2 desert tortoise hatchlings to the event at the State Capitol in a secure cage which was a good idea since approximately 1500 school children came to the event to learn what air pollution is doing to our planet. My table was set up between a guy cutting up many rainbow trout to show how to discard the innards and a display of healthy and diseased pig lungs, which the folks were inflating and deflating. I must say it was a disgusting couple of hours but it was fun talking to the children about tortoises.

It happened again! A lovely couple's daughter was having her 9th birthday and since they were about to go on a vacation and their daughter wanted a box turtle for her birthday, I asked them to come over and pick one out and I would save it until they returned. The people were so excited and happy. When they arrived, I escorted the family to the back yard and they were amazed by all of the tortoises and turtles they saw. We approached the box turtle habitat and I noticed some commotion going on in the water turtle pond. I stared in disbelief at the scene before me. These things NEVER happen when I am alone at The Bunker. There were two box turtles in the pond and they were joined together at the tail, which you would expect to see if the pair was mating. I whispered to the mom that her daughter might be getting more of an education than she wanted. I reached down to take them out of the water and it was then that I noticed (and I'm only telling you, my readers) that the turtles joined together were two males. I placed them elsewhere and quickly went back to finding the perfect birthday turtle for a little girl hoping nobody noticed my red face.

TURT ALERT -BEWARE OF COILED HOSES

I recently bought a few of the coiled hoses to make the yard appear neater. It was a huge mistake. It didn't take long before the tortoises were climbing all over it, tumbling upside down, walking around with the hose coiled around their bodies and generally being tangled up in it, and trapped in the sunshine. Yikes….don't use them!