Dear Members and Friends:

Our Summer meeting will be held on Saturday, July 19th from 1:30 until 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library located on the corner of South Land Park Drive and Fruitridge Road. The TURTLERAMA will be held 4 weeks after the meeting (Aug 16) so I will be asking you for your help once again to make it a success. As you know, it's a very popular event and last year, if anybody remembers, it was listed right next to the State Fair as a place to go!! It doesn't get any better than that!!! Please let me know ASAP either at the meeting or via email or snail mail if you can exhibit your pets and/or set up an educational display. We also need lots of helpers who can assist the exhibitors set up and break down their displays. There is usually food in the library kitchen for exhibitors only and since it's hard to break away from the crowd, we need helpers to bring refreshments to the exhibitors as well. Help cleaning up at the end is always appreciated.

Please try to bring a turtle or a tortoise to the July meeting for Show and Tell. Let us know its name and how it got that name and how it lives in your yard. Let us know what it eats and if there is anything unique about its behavior. They all have their little quirks, don't they? We can always use turtle items for the raffle, so please look through your stash and see if there is anything you can part with, even if your mother in law gave it to you.

Our Spring meeting was heavily attended and very interesting. Michael Rajkumar gave a slide presentation of a tortoise having bladder surgery to remove a stone. Thanks, Michael, it was quite informative. Father Dimitri had very complimentary words about our club, explaining that it is not a 'society' with board meetings, etc. but simply a friendly club for those interested in turtles and tortoises to enjoy our hobby and gather together several times a year for turtle talk and sharing information and ideas. We don't plan on changing anything because everything seems to work so well, however, sometimes, things go terribly wrong. Read On.....

THE CAKE!! The Spring meeting commemorated our 27th Anniversary. I had bought a beautiful sheet cake for the event. I placed the cake, which was sealed in its container, on the table in the back of the room. In my tote bag were a #2 and a #7 candle and matches to light them with and a pretty cake knife. It was my intention to light the candles, say a few words about the status of the club and personally cut the cake and give you each a piece and thank you sincerely for your support. - After Michael's slide show, I made my way to the back of the room with the candles, matches and knife in my hand. Imagine my complete disappointment to see ¾ of the cake hacked up and gone! I hope none of you heard my unkind words as I stuck the two candles in the few remaining pieces of cake and lit them and sadly returned to the front of the room. I don't know who decided to open the container and cut the cake. I do not know where the knife came from but I hope it was clean. My only wish is that the person who did it is never invited to a wedding!! As my husband said, “This Takes The Cake!!”

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

SUMMER HINTS: Watch out for predators. Rats seem to be doing more damage lately and attack during the day. One member keeps 3 box turtles in a greenhouse and left the door ajar and went to work. She came home to find two brutally murdered. Only a rat could have done that during the day. Please be alert. In addition, if we get hot weather, please keep your box turtles on the moist side and provide plenty of fresh water for all of your creatures. Provide shade for those turtles in child's wading pools. Fake trees you no longer need give good shade. Don't forget to sit back and enjoy your pets as often as possible. Turtle watching is fun and I know we don't do it often enough in our busy lives. Watch for egg laying when the moon is full. Put a rock over the nest so the next turtle doesn't come along and dig in the same hole. If you don't dig up the eggs, mark the rock so you don't forget what is under it!! Have a great summer. I hope everyone stays healthy!

A life saved!! About 6 weeks ago, I was cleaning out the pond as I try to do once a week. I put the Sears utility pump in and started it up. There are about 13 turtles in the pond, all hanging out at the bottom, seemingly enjoying the cleaning activity. As the water was nearly out, I reached down to clear the debris from the pump and noticed a lifeless pond turtle. I picked her up, feeling bad - I hadn't noticed anyone sick - and put her on the edge of the pond. As I was filling the pond, I sat down and put her on my lap and I have no idea why I decided to try to resuscitate her. I had tried this before on drowning victims and it never worked.

I held her in my left hand, face down, and with my right hand, pumped her back legs alternately into her tummy cavity and supported her lifeless head, which was bobbing about like a wet noodle, with my index finger. For no reason at all except for a vague feeling, I continued only stopping once to turn off the hose. After about 20 minutes, I thought I detected a slight movement of an eye. Then I held my breath as her head began to come up on its own. I kept at it until I got tired and it seemed she was coming back to life. It was quite a good feeling.

I eventually placed her in a plastic shoebox tilted downward so fluid could drain from her lungs. Late that night, I reluctantly went to sleep. Whatever I did must have worked because the next morning, she seemed as good as new. I placed her in a shallow pond to keep an eye on her and so far, she shows no sign of illness and is eating and swimming very well. I have no idea what could have happened to cause her near-death experience. The pond water is not clear when I lower the pump in and I always lower it in slowly so the turtles can get out of the way. And I can feel if it is on a solid bottom or rocking on a turtle's back! If turtles could talk, eh?

Meanwhile, all of the male Greek tortoises are now living with the box turtles whom they do not molest. They came out of hibernation and as soon as I put the Leopard tortoises (who are much bigger than they are) out onto the lawn for the summer, the three of them (all named Just Jim) proceeded to relentlessly hunt them down, ram and mount them, including a small male Sulcata who is now ready for therapy. So, into seclusion they went. It's better for everyone. And peace has returned (almost) to The Bunker. The only remaining problem is Chester, the ancient Elongata. He follows Tarzan Jr. around the yard and altho he's not very good at ramming, he kind of rocks back and forth and then falls forward, failing to hit his target! Tarzan usually sits there, ignoring the clumsy tortoise behind him. I do not like when Chester appears at midnight on the back porch waiting for a banana to appear. Yes, I always throw one out to him. I am well trained.

As you all know, I get a lot of sliders in for adoption and I put them into a child's wading pool to make sure they are healthy before being adopted to loving homes. I can always tell which turtles have been kept in aquariums due to the amount of pebbles and colored gravel that appears in the water after they've been here for a few days. This is proof that they actually eat this stuff and I imagine they can become impacted if they eat enough of it, so don't use it no matter how 'good' it looks! And remember our motto: “Aquariums Are For Fish!”

At the Fall meeting, Bobbi Bartley handed me 5 tiny sliders someone had given to her. Since I have never learned to say 'no', I took them and had no idea of how to care for them throughout the winter. I decided to put them into a big bucket in the greenhouse. I had a bucket of clean water next to them so when the water got dirty, I could just transfer them over. They somehow all survived and are growing quite nicely. Thanks Bobbi. This made up for the ones in the plastic bowl with a palm tree that were flushed when I was a little girl in The Bronx.

There is a small Sulcata here who eats seeds out of a bird feeder alongside the birds. What's up with that? Maybe he was raised with birds before ending up with me? And yesterday morning at 6, I was jarred awake by the sound of metal being dragged across concrete. I thought it was the men who noisily pick up the yard clippings every Friday, but this was Thursday. I got out of bed and looked out of the window and saw Tarzan Jr. walking along the side yard with an old rusty metal stepping stool stuck on his back. Instead of walking around it, he kept going straight, as tortoises do, dragging it along with him until it toppled over with a huge clang! At least I could go back to sleep at that point.

Soon after Blondie's last batch of eggs hatched in February, I noticed a solitary egg sitting on the heat mat in the greenhouse. I picked it up and figured it was infertile but decided to incubate it anyway. I always tell all of you to treat every egg as if it is fertile, so I followed my own advice. As I go to press at this time on June 20th, I can see a little tortoise face peeking out of the egg. WOW!!

The Bunker needs a little sprucing up. Any volunteers out there? NO CHILDREN PLEASE and you must have a sense of humor. The Bermuda grass has overtaken an area of the yard where it does not belong.

Enjoy the summer and even tho you don't like the hot weather, it is wonderful for our pets. Thanks again for your continued support.

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

JULY 19TH - SUMMER MEETING - 1:30 - 4
TURTLERAMA - AUGUST 16TH, 11 UNTIL 4
OCTOBER 18TH - FALL MEETING - 1:30 UNTIL 4
JANUARY 17TH, 2009 - SLUMBERAMA - 1 UNTIL 3
DEPENDING ON THE WEATHER!!!

ALL EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT THE BELLE COOLEDGE LIBRARY
5600 SOUTH LAND PARK DRIVE SACRAMENTO CA 95822