Dear Members and Friends:

Our Summer meeting will be held on Saturday, July 18th at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive 95822, from 1:30 until 4. The meeting will be followed by the TURTLERAMA four weeks later so please let me know if you are planning on exhibiting your pets or educational materials or helping out or both. If you want to change anything about the show, let me know. I am always open to new ideas and displays. Joyce Trimingham has made up some beauties recently. Please sign up at the meeting or call or email me with your plans. It is appreciated.

For July's meeting, however, let's have a good Show and Tell. We usually try to have this event but somehow are too busy talking about other subjects and before we know it, the meeting is over and we have to get out of the library so they can lock up. I plan on bringing Chester, the ancient Elongated tortoise who, on warm nights, comes out of hiding and walks around the yard looking for bananas (his favorite food) and sets off the Driveway Patrol. You know the rest. I am out there in my nightgown with a flashlight looking for a predator. Please bring your favorite turtle or tortoise and share your story. In addition, Michael Rajkumar and I would like to discuss parasites and also ask what will happen to your pets if something happens to you.

Our Spring meeting was very well attended. I can't mention the amount of people in the room for fear the library staff will never let us in again for exceeding the limit. We had a wonderful time. I cut the 28th Anniversary cake and gave a piece to everyone. Since this was time-consuming, Dimitri came to the rescue again and spoke on a variety of subjects including praising the club for its simplicity and helpfulness and friendliness. With your encouragement, I do go the extra mile for our shelled friends. When I mentioned that nobody would ever be elected to anything, a huge cheer went up in the room. That must be the secret to our success!!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING

Summer Hints

Watch out for hatchlings on the lawn. Egg laying continues in July and even into August if it is warm. Mist the box turtle enclosures. If they develop swollen eyes they could be dehydrated from lack of humidity. Check your pets often to make sure none are upside down. Put a spring closure on your gate. Please install a simple Driveway Patrol to warn of predators in the yard. If you must fertilize your lawn, water it well for three weeks before letting your tortoises walk and graze on it. Don't Look for Information on the Internet!

It is the same old story here. I have been inundated with big red-eared sliders as has our unsung hero, Marilyn Flynn, who put in a new larger pond which quickly filled up with the huge ones she was picking up from Animal Control. Our own turtles have been suffering because of this and even dying of strange diseases. It is a nightmare.

Susan Tellem, who founded the American Tortoise Rescue in Malibu and also proclaimed World Turtle Day to be May 23rd each year, wrote a letter to the F& G Commission stating that she is accepting no more sliders and that the F&G will have to deal with this monumental problem right now instead of putting it off for another 20 years or more. Our waterways are clogged with sliders and by our 'rescuing' them, we are enabling the authorities to simply continue to do nothing. Marilyn and I will follow Susan's lead. We will continue to take in pet turtles for adoption but not the ones who very obviously came from the Oriental markets where they were awaiting being butchered alive after being taken from our southeastern states. Many people buy them and simply let them go in order to save them.

Meanwhile, here At The Bunker, the on again off again warm weather has the turtles and tortoises in their usual tizzy. We can't force them to eat but as I write this in late June, the nights are around 60 degrees and everyone is eating and feeling perky and there is lots of mating going on. I am baby sitting a group of young female Greek tortoises. Enter Just Jim the Jerk. He was especially naughty this spring, hauling off and chasing and biting the leopard tortoises as they quietly grazed. He continued to chase the small Sulcata who has the prolapse problem now and then and even though he could push and bite back, he never has. One day I stood in the middle of the yard with Jim in my hand. I had to put him somewhere. But where? It was too hot in the greenhouse. I can't be cruel! It's a small yard with not much space. I looked at the little Greeks. Should I? Could I? I did!! I put Jim in there with the girls and there was an immediate change. He became Just Jim the Gentleman. In that enclosure, he is very quiet and eats side by side with them. Jim no longer can bite the heels of all of the tortoises who are running away from him. For now, it's wonderful! But how long will it last?

I had something interesting happen in the incubator a few months ago. While washing off Blondie's eggs before incubating them, one slipped out of my hand and cracked. Yes, I felt like a murderer but I quickly grabbed some glue (Duco cement was handy) and a piece of gauze and poured the glue on the egg and stuck the gauze on it while telling myself how stupid it was to do this. I expected it to explode in the incubator. Well, it didn't explode. The baby hatched!! In fact, it was the first egg to hatch. The next day, I discovered another had hatched and was struggling with a piece of the shell adhered to its nostrils. Boy oh boy, I'm glad I saw that before it was too late. It's always something. Fat Betty is fine and getting even fatter. She did lay some eggs, but they are never fertile. None of the boys pay any attention to her. As the old song goes, "I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me........" I am looking forward to a long and very hot summer. I see you all rolling your eyes out there, but it's best for our pets.

Upcoming Meetings:

July 18th 1:30 to 4
AUGUST 15th - TURTLERAMA - 11-4
October 24th - 1:30 to 4 (note date change)
January 16th, 2010 Slumberama 1-3