Dear Members and Friends:

Our Fall meeting will be held on October 26th from 1:30 until 4 at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive, Sacramento, CA 95822. Father Dimitri Grekoff will be on hand to conduct pre-hibernation checkups and I suggest bringing your pet in a box and having a list of your cares and concerns ready to speed up the line a little. If your pet is already hibernating, please don't wake him up and bring him. As many of you know, it's also our pot-luck meeting so bring a dish for everyone to enjoy and if there are leftovers, feel free to take them home and most of all, PLEASE help clean up the food mess on the floor before you leave. We have to leave the room as clean as we found it and the library personnel are trying to avoid an ant problem.

We'll be discussing hibernation so this is the time to ask those questions. We do have 99% of the answers. Just make sure you don't try to hibernate a tropical tortoise or turtle. For example, red and yellowfoot tortoises do not hibernate nor do Sulcatas and Leopards. Something else to consider is whether or not to let hatchlings of hardy species hibernate. Some people always do, other people never do. It's totally natural, so why keep them awake? On the other hand, they could die........see? If you want to go crazy, this is the time of the year to do it.

We'll also try to help you decide how to keep your non-hibernating tortoise awake and happy all winter, it's always an emotional topic because a lot of us think of our pets as human babies and can't stand the thought of them sleeping for months without food or water and cold cold cold.

In addition to turtle and tortoise talk, I'm going to add a little extra kick to the meetings. Since most of you are very interested in cactus and succulents, I am going to reserve a little time at the meeting for some cactus/succulent talk. I'll bring a specimen to talk about, maybe for someone to guess what it is and then put it on the raffle table? Or I can be bribed as well if you can't live without it. We could share cuttings. The possibilites are endless. I can't wait!!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

Our Summer meeting was terrific with about 80+ people in the room and it was followed quickly by the TURTLERAMA four weeks later and there are a lot of people to thank who either were helpers or exhibitors. So thank you Shirley Waterman and her helper Mayda Taylor at the sale table; Jim Corbett for helping from beginning to end and beyond; Bobby Stanley for offering his expertise to the event; Patty Richardson for helping, Kasey Coffman and Terry Williams showing box turtles; Susan Saljuk for helping; Debra Chase for helping; Susan and Glenn for showing off their beautiful male California desert tortoise whom they have raised since he was a baby; Chuck Deguara displayed his adorable sliders including the albinos; Corrine and Joy had their beautiful turtles on display; Asians (Chinese), 3 toes and Easterns; Lois and Luke had their little desert tortoises on display in a very unique kiddie pool setup; Mary Schuett was on hand with her desert tortoises and a Greek and Pancake tortoise and Elaine Martinez brought Sweet Pea, her 75 lb. African Sulcata and her Florida soft shell; a Mississippi Map turtle a red ear and a three toed box AND her homemade wooden turtle tables they live in outdoors. Robin Marose showed off his Greek adults and babies and Sally Hodapp had her lively Eastern box turtles on display. Thank you, Sharon Jones, for showing your baby box turtles as well as Suzanne McNamee for displaying your box turtles and Russian tortoise and for answering all of those questions all day. Thank you Michael Rajkumar for helping everyone physically and others with their turtle/tortoise questions and I know we kept Dimitri busy as well. Whew! If I left anyone out, please forgive me and let me know and I'll add you to the next newsletter. It was a rather hectic busy day.

The plant sale was a huge hit as well and thanks to all who brought them including Ruby Nakano and Angie Tamantini via her son Steve. There's even more! Kevin brought baked goods for us all and a million thanks for Ernestine and Chris for making the dirt cakes with gummy worms with and for the children (grownups too!) There was also seed planting and painting of turtle pins to take. Susan Seljuk, thanks for helping me all day; Jon Wato, I hope you sold some Russians and Jackie, thanks for bringing Thunder (Sulcata) to chase after Sweet Pea! He's grown large since we last saw him. Kira, thanks for helping me compile this list and Chase for helping and Ruby and Alan Nakano for coming by the day before to help me set up the room. I'm reliving the whole day as I type and am getting very tired! Looking forward to next year's show!!! Are you????

****NEXT MEETING AFTER THIS IS JANUARY 25, 2014****

As usual, the summer months flew by so fast and a lot of box turtle eggs were laid and some are beginning to hatch as I type this newsletter. On a sad note, a much awaited Asian (or Chinese) box turtle finally hatched only to quickly die of a ruptured yolk sac. Unfortunately, things like this happen for no reason. The other 3 eggs appear to be empty. But I'll keep them in the incubator anyway because nobody ever really knows. When they shrivel or worse, explode, then it will be time to discard them. The Asian eggs are not usually laid in a normal manner. The females don't dig large enough holes. I don't know if they are in a hurry or are lazy, but they will use another turtle's nest to place their eggs in leaving them half sticking out of the ground as well. Some simply lay the egg on top of the ground and walk away. If you are not there to see it, another turtle will quickly come along and eat it.

The usual nonsense continues with Just Jim Jr. (Greek) making a complete fool of himself chasing and trying to mate with any male tortoise, the bigger the better and sometimes going after Blondie, the large leopard. I don't know where he gets all of his energy from since he seems to eat very little and I've never seen him drink any water and he has been here over 20 years. He'll grab a bite or two if I fling the food in front of his face as he is running after someone. He spends a lot of time (for his own good) in a prison which is a dog kennel I bought at my neighbor's garage sale. It is more roomy than the old jail. He has more room to move about in this one and seems to relax in it and perhaps feels it is his 'home'? It takes the pressure off of his victims too. They will withstand the abuse for a certain amount of time before either running away; turning around and butting him back; (notice I said 'butting' and not 'biting') and when he is safely 'put away' they will calmly eat and enjoy the rest of their day as it was before the bully came along. I totally admire Robin Marose and his beautiful Greek hatchlings. His group seem normal, whereas, mine are not. Are they 'Born This Way' as Lady GaGa sings?

I'm totally addicted to our club Facebook page and love all of you participating with such good advice regarding other people's problems. The outbursts are tremendous when touchy subjects come up such as what to do if you catch a raccoon that has harmed or killed your turtles or tortoises. Be truthful, what would YOU do??? So many people have very strong opinions on this subject. I know what you would WANT to do, I know all too well the feelings. But first you have to trap the beast!! Not so easy, my friends. I keep saying 'Aquariums are for Fish'. Maybe I am wrong? At least they are SAFER in an aquarium!!!!! And you can sleep at night...............

There won't be another newsletter until January, so take good care of yourselves and enjoy the upcoming holiday season and take time to relax all winter and plan improvements to your habitats. Stay in touch through Facebook or email me if you are having any difficulties or questions. Thanks to all of you for your continued support which keeps this club going and going and going. It is greatly appreciated!!