Dollar

Dollar is a turtle. Dollar used to be named Turtlini and belonged to a co-worker. Turtlini didn't get along with Mrs. Turtlini so they went their seperate ways, and Turtlini came to live with us and became Dribble (named after the turtle in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing), then became Dollar...and Dollar is the name that stuck.

Next we spent about $200.00 on an appropriate home for our free pet...tank, filter, lights, basking log, food, water treatments...we got it all. And Dollar has been a very happy turtle. He swims; he eats; he basks; he eats; he sleeps; he eats...you get the picture. We've also heard that turtles like outdoor habitats, so we've taken him outdoors a few times to enjoy the real sun rather than the artificial UVA and UVB spectrum lights provided in his aquarium. He's done ok out there--no different really...just basks. Such is the life of a turtle.

A few weeks ago we decided to take him to our cabin with us rather than finding a neighbor to come in daily to care for him. After all, what turtle in his right mind wouldn't prefer a real outdoor habitat to artificial UVA and UVB spectrum lighting, artificial plant pellets, and and artificially heated tank? At the cabin we carefully prepared the blue vinyl wading pool (it was outdoors, so technically the pool was the only artificial part of his environment), filled it with water, added real logs and rocks, and put him in. He swam, then basked. He tried to climb out, but the vinyl was too slippery and seemed to keep him inside ok. He looked so happy basking on that log.

We spent the next little while going about our business of relaxing at the cabin. About 30 minutes later, Jeran yelled, "Dollar's missing!" We went outside and sure enough the call of the wild proved to be too great for little Dollar to ignore...and apparently the artificial vinyl wading pool wasn't enough of a natural habitat to satisfy his craving for a walk on the wild side. The good news is the cabin is in an area where there is a high water table and is surrounded by a lot of marshy swamp land. The bad news is we lost Dollar. We looked for him the whole time we were up there, and didn't find him. We kept thinking he had to come out to bask sometime, but apparently he was basking in a really good hiding spot because we didn't find him. When we originally researched how to take care of him we read about people who keep their turtles outside and in cold climates they supposedly burrow for the winter. Hope he's good at burrowing because Midway, Utah can get cold in the winter (sigh).

Already the boys have cleaned out the tank so we can go get a new turtle. Joie wants a bunny instead. Problem is Champ and Angel (the dogs) probably would also really, really like a bunny, but for different reasons.