Dear Members and Friends:

Our next meeting will be held on January 26th from 1:30-4 at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive 95822. Remember, bad weather will cause a cancellation so call or email ahead of time just to be sure. Even though it is mid-winter, your pets will start coming back to life around Valentine's Day so don't panic when you see them. We'll go through what you should and should not do when this occurs. My main advice right now is to tell you NOT to bring them indoors unless you see clear signs of illness.....l'm typing this at the beginning of January and some Greeks and Hermann's and a few Russians, including Fat Betty, and one Gulf Coast box turtle, are still sitting out on sunny days even after nights that are dipping into the 20's!! Just Jim Jr. is out there too, but the 'Jerk' had sense enough to hibernate somewhere. Fat Betty has not given reliable weather forecasts in quite a few years. I guess she has lost her touch and retired??

Our Fall meeting was fabulous. We had about 90 guests attending and Father Dimitri conducted his pre-hibernation checkups and I hope all is well with the pets you allowed to hibernate and the ones you are trying to keep awake indoors for the winter. We had quite an assortment of food for our Pot Luck and even I managed to get a good plate full. Thanks you all for your wonderful food donations. It was all delicious. By the way, if you bring some food and some is left over or not eaten at all, feel free to take it back home. Several people asked for permission and, of course, it is fine to do.

January's meeting is usually low key. I think I will buy a cake to share since I just had an 'important' birthday and if you have a pet you would like to bring for Show and Tell, that would be great. I have not decided who to bring yet, but it could be Otis, the slider I accepted into my shelter, who recently lost all of his limbs to a raccoon attack but is doing well. Maybe you can help me decide how best to keep him safe and happy. He is healing well and leaves no food uneaten.

TURTALERT: I tried to bring this topic up at the Fall meeting but I didn't get too far. So here I go again. We've been invited to participate in the El Dorado County Fair, June 13-16th. This includes Father's Day. I'm not sure how we can pull off this 4 day event. I know that I could not be there for 4 days, 10 hours a day not including traveling. I'm not even sure it would be a good idea to be there in the first place. It's very stressful for the turtles and tortoises to be on display for that length of time. I don't know if we would be indoors or outdoors and I would love to discuss this at the meeting. So please think about it and we'll talk about it, bounce ideas back and forth and come to a decision.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!!

Winter Hints, etc: You pretty much know the ropes by now. Meanwhile, on these long cold days, start going through the seed catalogs you have gotten in the mail and plan your edible summer garden. Also, look over your turtle and/or tortoise enclosures and see what improvements you can make for the upcoming season. Try to make it as raccoon proof as possible by providing a lot of hiding places with small doorways not much larger than the turtle or tortoise. Even if you have never seen a raccoon, they are never too far away. Be Alert.

I am often asked this question: how can water turtles hibernate under water......Water turtles can receive oxygen by water passing over their throat (pharyngeal) or by cloacal absorption. Their metabolism is very slow during this time and they require very little oxygen. These methods are what allow them to remain underwater for months while hibernating in their natural habitat which may normally be under snow and ice during the winter.

Of interest, tortoises can have bladder stones in their system all their life without having any problems. When the stones become large enough to press on the animal's spine, kidneys or cause other problems, it may still take years before the stones cause the animal to die....from the March/April issue of The Carapace 1998.

The Story of Darwin, Don't worry, it doesn't end badly.....

The Raccoon attacks in the summer of 2011 were extremely vicious, and I was completely caught off guard that morning in August when I saw my sweet Darwin lying upside down near the back fence with one knee a bit chewed on and the other knee nearly bitten off. Darwin is a very mishapen Leopard Tortoise whose body has grown out past her shell from her former living conditions. The shell no longer protects her head or her extremities or her tail. She can't tuck anything in and it is very difficult for her to walk as well. She sort of scoots slowly along but she does get around. Sometime during the night of August 11, she was pulled out of her 'safe' doghouse which is in an area which is well lit and away from the back yard, and she must have been rolled over and over and over into the back yard because she was too heavy to be picked up. I don't know why my motion detectors neglected detect the movement during the night. So there she lay, upside down with a mad beast trying to eat her, severely injured, left to bleed to death by that vicious creature who was not hungry, but only wanted to maim and let her die alone in the dark. The worst injury was to the left knee which was now a gaping bloodless wound with the broken bones all sticking out. Gruesome to look at, for sure and my heart was hurting so much over this dear creature who was looking at me with her black trusting eyes. There was no blood. Mother Nature had shut off the blood supply to the gaping wound.

What to do? What to do?? I kept looking into her eyes for an answer. If I took her to a vet, they would absolutely remove her leg. This was unacceptable to me because it was already very difficult for her to walk around and this would mean she would never walk again. Her leg was not devoid of feeling. She could move it which encouraged me to follow my instinct and treat her myself and whatever happened would happen. I gently cleaned the mess as best I could. I loosely applied a bandage around it (which never stayed on) and set up a new home for her on my screened in patio. She was content out there. She ate very well, always giving me those 'looks' and then she was in the house all winter, healing. When I took the other leopard tortoises out of the greenhouse for the summer last March, I put her into the greenhouse so she would have more room to walk around. The knee was still gaping but she was using it to walk and she slowly began to get more movement out of it for the next few months. I finally let her roam the yard during the day in August, a full year after the attack, and she did manage to always make it around the corner of the yard on her way to her special dog house. I made sure to have it toally barricaded at night to protect her from a rogue raccoon. As of this writing, the knee seems to be changing and looking somewhat better and does not cause one to cringe and say "ewww" when looking at it. Nobody knew of this heartache and complete anger I was feeling towards the beast who did this, and I revealed it only recently. So forgive me for not going to a vet. Darwin has her leg and that is the most important outcome after this horrible attack. She is a very lucky girl and my heart sings when I see her little face every day waiting for her meal.

The turtles and tortoises and I wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. Spring will be here before you know it and if you are anything like me, you can hardly wait for warm days and to see our pets waking up for another season of fun in the sun. Don't hesitate to call or email if you have any problems or suggestions and visit our Facebook page often for good advice and sometimes, a few good disagreements!! Thanks everyone for your continued support. It is appreciated.

2013 Meeting Schedule: Jan 26; April 20, July 20, August 17 (TURTLERAMA), Oct 26.