So, remember this guy? Tommy Sea Turtle? Birthday gift to Nora? Well, I have a confession to make. NO! I did not kill him. Not on purpose. Not by ripping him to pieces with my bare hands because I feared him biting me as I did in a terrible and oh-so-realistic nightmare I had the night after I first cleaned his tank. And not on accident by forgetting to feed him, or refusing to clean the tank and allowing him to choke on his own poop, or by stepping on him or letting Ezra's kindergarten class touch him too much when he went in for a class visit. None of those fates met Tommy.
But something did happen to him. He moved on. To a new house. To a new family. Away from Nora. Yep. We took away her birthday present. Our kids' one and only pet. Aren't we terrible parents? After only 4 months of smelling his stink and watching his back side while he hid under his rock and refused to look at us, we gave up. A nice man named Russ came and picked him up Monday. Nora wasn't too upset, actually. And Caroline, who shared her room with Tommy, was pretty happy. She didn't like smelling him all night. Anyhow, Russ has a lovely pond and two other turtles. The pond has fish for Tommy to chase. He can swim around--which he couldn't do in his tiny, yet expensive tank at our house. I asked Russ to send us a couple pictures of Tommy in his new home since he seemed like a nice guy. He kindly obliged. Tommy is the swimming speck off in the right side of the pond in the first picture.
And there he is up close, swimming as if his life depended on it...oh wait, it does. Isn't Russ's pond and landscaping beautiful?
Russ told us that "Joe" the Turtle liked his new home. Um, but what about Tommy? Hehe. Either he couldn't remember the name we gave him, or he promptly changed it. The kids are glad that Tommy is happy. They were amazed to see his flippers opened up like that because he couldn't do that in his little tank. They are now pestering for fish to fill the tank. Or chicken for the backyard. Or a dog. Or, or, or.... My point is, they've moved on. Hopefully they are not scarred for life. As they surely would have been had my nightmare been real.
6 comments:
I'll celebrate with you:). Much less traumatic than waiting until he dies...trust me:/.
To me a bad smell trumps my kids' emotional needs for critters. Want a hamster?
Happy for Tommy! Now a dog is a different story.....all kids need a dog....! And you know Mike and I are in our second childhood! A pet needs to be held and cuddled and loved. Can't do that with a turtle - yuck! But it was fun to see Tommy swimming. Should have had a smelly pond! Our neighbor has one and she doesn't do a good job of keeping hers clean, and when she does clean it, THAT is work! See, a dog is great. We just walk Hank and he does all is "duty" in someone's alley, or a ditch bank!!!
Fun post!
Maybe I should pin this to Pinterest so I can remind myself never to buy a stinky turtle for Little Mr. :)
This gives me an idea....
;)
Points for you that you were willing to get a turtle in the first place!!!!! :-)
I'm glad Nora was not too bummed out that he's gone, that would have made it much harder.
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