Dear Members and Friends:

Our Fall meeting will be held on Saturday, October 16th from 1:30 until 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library. The library is located on the corner of South Land Park and Fruitridge Road off of I-5. This will be our annual pot-luck meeting so bring your favorite snack to share and please try to remember to help clean up afterwards. Thank you so much for that. Hibernation will be our main topic and Father Dimitri is going to be on hand to perform the pre-hibernation checkups. Feel free to bring your turtle or tortoise to the meeting, however, we beg you not to pass your pet around the room, but allow others to observe it without actually touching it. No hugging or kissing, ok? Of course, if it's another person, that's perfectly fine!

I'm certain that many of you have expected and unexpected hatchlings and many questions as well. We'll be happy to answer as many as possible and please give us your input on this subject if you have had successes in the past and even if there have been disasters. It's the only way we can learn, from our unfortunate mistakes. There will probably be hatchlings of various species for sale at the meeting so be sure to take a care sheet to help you care for it and it is never a bad idea to buy several, just in case!!

Our Turtlerama was a HUGE success. It seems to get better and better each year and it is due to all of you who brought your turtles and tortoises to display in wonderful habitats and stayed all day long answering hundreds of questions. We had a great assortment of turtles and tortoises to show the public. Gary and Ginger Wilfong arrived from Castro Valley (Bay Area Turtle and Tortoise Rescue) with some huge Sulcatas which was wonderful because we hope people will resist buying the "cute little hatchlings" after seeing how big and aggressive some of these tortoises become. The unsuspecting public really has to be aware of what lies ahead especially since the African species do not hibernate and cannot get chilled. It would be like keeping a cow in your warm house all winter. Not good!!

We had a huge amount of wonderful plants donated and although I know most came from Angie and Linda, I don't know who else donated but the club is very appreciative of your kind donation. The money from the sale went into the Sick Turtle Fund as does all extra dues, etc. Not all of the plants sold. The rest of them are on my front porch so if there were any you were interested in - it may not be too late after all!!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

Fall Hints - Since I have had several phone calls on this subject, I thought I would reprint an article from Ellen Nicol which appeared in the Feb/March 1990 issue of The Carapace, newsletter of the National Turtle and Tortoise Society, Inc.

"If a prematurely-hatched turtle or tortoise has a very large sac, do your best to keep the sac intact, mainly by keeping the baby quiet to prevent it from walking around and possibly tearing the sac. The yolk is not only necessary nourishment for the hatchling, but there is a system of blood vessels throughout the yolk, connected with the turtle. If the sac is punctured and the yolk runs or squeezes out, blood circulation is disrupted between the hatchling and the sac, almost always resulting in death of the infant. Don't be impatient to open eggs early, even if the time of incubation seems right for the species. Rapid development takes place right at the end of incubation, and even two weeks can make a difference between a normal healthy baby, and one too small to survive, being deprived of its final weeks in the shell."

This time, Blondie, the Leopard tortoise laid 9 eggs on September 11. If you remember, on Sept. 11, 2001, another leopard had laid eggs. I guess I have some very patriotic tortoises living here. The original 9/11/01 eggs did not hatch. The health of the mother was questionable, but I am hopeful that Blondie's eggs will hatch around February 12th. If not, then most certainly on Washington's birthday which is February 22 or "President's Day", the 21st. I will let you know and once they are eating, they will be for sale.

I failed to mention in our last newsletter the fact that on one of my nightly patrols to make sure everyone was ok, I stepped over the little fence leading into the Reeves enclosure and heard a 'crunch'. In the darkness, it appeared that I had stepped on some white rocks. I went in and got a flashlight. (I didn't remember any white rocks there before!) DARN! I had stepped on and broken two eggs. There were 3 in the nest which was barely covered and these two were sitting on the top, like decoys, and if I had not stepped on them, I'm sure in the morning the blue jays would have enjoyed eating them as well as the ones in the exposed nest. I dug out the other three and incubated them in a clay flower pot filled with damp green moss. Two adorable babies emerged two weeks ago. The third egg was empty. I'm glad I didn't kill them all.

The Bunker has been busy, as it always is in the summertime, fielding phone calls, emails, snail mails, entertaining visitors and waiting for them to ask me how many turtles I have (does it really matter?), healing the sick and injured and consoling the bereaved not to mention getting ready for the Turtlerama! No small task.

Fat Betty is still quite active in mid-September which means there is plenty of good weather ahead. She has many friends these days due to the fact that Petco was selling them to folks who had no clue as to what they were buying. They soon realized that these guys can emit some really smelly poo which they do profusely when unhappy indoors, plunked into an aquarium as per pet shop employee instructions. I have found suitable outdoor homes for most of them. Paula Morris appropriately calls them "The Fecal People". Indoors, it's true.

Of course, the African Sulcatas are worth mentioning. They regularly are turned in for adoption. One has been here for two years and is starting to grow a bit too large and has turned into a dog in a way. He follows me around the yard and will nip at my ankles letting me know he is there and is hungry. He stations himself in a doghouse close to the back porch feeding area so he can lumber out whenever food magically appears. I try not to have favorites, but he is stealing my heart. He does have a new home but their yard is not quite ready. I will miss my buddy when he leaves.

A desert tortoise was here for awhile and I put him into the Greenhouse because he was bullying the other tortoises. He immediately reverted to his wild behavior and dug a large burrow. He dug under the Greenhouse footings and ended up in the new secure pond area. Before I knew it, several sliders made their way into the hole and came out in the Greenhouse. A male Greek, also in the Greenhouse for being fresh ended up basking by the side of the pool with the sliders. When I saw that, I froze. I could not imagine how he got there until I inspected the burrow. The pond area is heavily planted so I could not see what had obviously happened. Such is life At The Bunker. Every day brings a new challenge.

TURTLE ALERT BLOOPER

In the last newsletter, I made an error regarding red eared sliders and water turtles in general. I had said that they sometimes turn into 'carnivores' if a box turtle or a sick turtle is in the pond. The word I meant to use was "cannibals."

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HEALTHY AND HAPPY HIBERNATION