Dear Members and Friends:

Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 22nd at the Belle Cooledge Library from 1:30 until 4. The library is located on the corner of South Land Park Drive and Fruitridge Road. We will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club so there will be some reminiscing, talking about what we have accomplished and discussing where the club is heading in the future. Like any other club, members come and members go but the club has never stopped growing. Since a club is as good as its members, I owe you all a debt of gratitude for your continued support and a HUGE THANK YOU for your never ending generosity. It has enabled me to keep the dues low so that everyone can join and has kept the sick turtle fund alive and well. I am glowing with gratitude and am prepared to continue for another 25 years! Shirley, can you manage the sale table for another 25 years? You're great!

We will have a special speaker for this special meeting. Her name is Linda Schooler and she has been a member of our club for many years, however, I was not aware of her extraordinary talents until recently. Linda is a pet psychic. She has been a professional psychic since 1987. In 1997 she added animal communication to her field of work after 10 years as a volunteer pet therapy handler. Linda has been on TV and has had her own radio show and she was named best psychic in 2002 by the Sacramento News and Review.

As a psychic, Linda hopes to bring greater clarity and depth into a persons life. A 'reading' can also include communication with those people or animals who have crossed over. As an animal communicator, Linda can help strengthen the bond between pet and person.

Linda has agreed to stay throughout the meeting and if you will bring a photo of your pet, she will do a reading and after meditating for a few seconds, will be able to restore understanding and communication between you and your pet. Arrangements can also be made for private readings at a later date. I may have to make an appointment to find out why my Greek tortoises act the way they do.

We'll be discussing coming out of hibernation problems and I do hope there aren't too many. If you bring your turtle or tortoise to the meeting, please keep it in a box and do not pass it around the room. We certainly do not want to spread any diseases.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT THE MEETING!

Have we ever had a more horrible winter? My condolences to all who lost some of their turtles and tortoises during this hibernation period. As I type, it is a little over 40 degrees with record overnight lows. This would be normal in December and January but not in March! The trees are in blossom and the daffodils are up but the air has not been at all warm. We know better weather is ahead and personally, I can't wait. There's not much you can do for your outdoor turtles except hope for the best. The healthy ones will survive. The problem is - we never know until it's too late, if they were sick! Try not to kick yourselves if something bad happens. The truth is that most of the time the first symptom of illness in turtles is death.

If you find baby box turtles or water turtles outside, it might be best not to bring them inside. They hatched out there, therefore, that's where they should remain. Make sure you keep them in a safe place so the birds do not eat them and you don't step on them.

It has been a long cold winter in Sacramento. I am always sad when hibernation time arrives and then aggravated when there doesn't seem to be any end to it. I hope by the time this newsletter arrives in your mailbox, we'll be basking in the warm sun once more.

After many years of not seeing any predators, I awoke one morning in early January to see evidence that a visitor had been in the yard. My pond that contains only plants and minnows was in disarray and I feared the worst for the sliders in the covered 'adoption pond' next to it. I tiptoed out, squinting, because I did not want to see any mutilated turtles. Unfortunately, many of the sliders were on their backs on the ground. One was dead. Strangely, the others were not seriously harmed.

Knowing the predator would return, I set up my Havahart trap that night and also activated my Driveway Patrol. Everything was set and I decided to put the Driveway Patrol warning bell by my side of the bed upstairs because I didn't think I could hear it from the kitchen. For a month, this girl didn't get a full night's sleep. The alarm would go off several times during the night and I would leap up and run down the stairs into the cold kitchen and peer outside. Most of the time I could see a cat running along the fence line and I began to wonder what I would have done if I had seen a raccoon. Would I have run outside barefoot in a nightgown to confront it? Probably not, but I would certainly have made some noise to scare it off. Eventually I turned off the alarm although the trap remains to be set every night. It is nice to be able to sleep through the night without being jarred awake and the cat who sleeps on my bed appreciates it too.

Fat Betty came out of her doghouse on March 11 and forecast 6 more weeks of winter. She is never wrong. This is very late for her to emerge. She sure knows what is going on weather wise. Joltin' Joe, the very old Marginata is quite ill this winter and I'm doing all I can to bring him back to health but it doesn't look good. I've had him for so many years - I'll keep trying. The tortoises wintering in the greenhouse have done well. I've noticed some mating going on which means they sense that Spring is on its way. All winter, they kind of hunker down on their Stanfield Heat Mat and don't do much except eat and excrete!! As soon as it gets a little warmer, they will be banging on the glass door to be let out. I secretly prefer them in the greenhouse because once they are out, I have to run around every night making sure they are in their shelters. I need a vacation...

With Spring hopefully right around the corner, it will be a busy time for us all. So get out there and check the yard carefully. You want to mend any fences that the turtles can see through so get down to their level and take a look. You might be surprised to see the spaces you didn't know were there before. Winter rains do things like that. And if your turtles can see to the other side, you can bet that's where they will be heading ASAP. Check the yard for small white rocks that tortoises enjoy eating and dispose of them. Dangers are everywhere. BE ALERT!!