Spike

Yesterday was picture day at the kids school, we had a late start getting up so I was rushing to get Kaleb showered and ready for school with only about 20 mins to do so, and I had to get Ellie dressed and fed. Marryne put Hershey outside like she does every morning, well Hershey seemed to be having a conniption and I didn't want to her wake the neighbors so Marryne let her back in the house, and man that dog wouldn't stop whining to go outside which isn't normal for her, but I didn't have time to see what the deal was. I got Kaleb all ready to go and while we were waiting for the bus I told Ryne to let the dog out again since all the whining was driving me crazy, now this time Ryne came back with a report she kept telling me "mom there is a touwel outside" now Ryne has a had time saying certain sounds, I couldn't understand what she was saying I had her repeat it a few times with know luck of understanding the bus arrived so I told her that I would check it out once I got Kaleb on the bus well I didn't I completely forgot all about it. After Kaleb got on the bus I took a few minutes to have some breakfast, then I had to start getting Ryne ready for school with some fabulous picture day hair! Ryne didn't bring up showing me whatever it was that she saw, but the stinkin dog kept wanting to go outside, she was non-stop whining and barking she was really driving me insane, well once Ryne was off to school and Kaleb was home veggin on the couch I let Hershey outside and guess what I found on my back porch steps? Something I never expected to be there and something that Hershey was not very fond of. Give up? Should I tell ya? A turtle yup ya heard me right a turtle now I have heard many stories of people finding turtles in their yards but I never expected to find one on my back porch on his back. By the looks of it Hershey was using this poor little guy as a chew toy, I really didn't think he was alive.Once I rescued the poor thing and brought him into the house I put 2 and 2 together Ryne was trying to tell me that there was a "T U R T L E" on the back porch, DUH why didn't I realize that earlier!? It totally makes sense too, the way Hershey was acting like there was just something that she wanted to get at, the more I thought about how much the dog had been outside and how the turtle was when I found him I started to feel really bad that I hadn't taken the time to look at what Ryne was tryin to show me.

Well I brought the turtle in the house, now I may be a mom, child expert, cook, wifvfe, seamstress, maid,nurse and many other countless things one thing I am not is a turtle expert. I had no idea what to do with the poor thing, of course he was all bottled up in his shell, I wasn't even sure if he was alive, I was hoping he was cause other wise I would feel awful if this poor thing died cause I ignored my daughter when she wanted to show me what she saw. The first thing I thought was to look it up on line, the only problem was that I had no idea what kind of turtle this little guy was, I didn't even know where to begin. I googled pet turtles and got tons of results which really weren't all that helpful cause none of the turtles looked like the one I had. So I googled images and found one that looked just like my little guy, the only problem was the picture was linked to some cooking site(!?)so it had no information whatsoever on the turtle not the name of it nothin. So I hit a dead end and I was getting tired of going to different sites only to find nothing! I remembered a few Sunday's back Ryne's Sunday school teacher had brought a turtle of a lesson, so I decided to e-mail her the picture and see if she could help me out cause I had no idea what I was dealing with. That was a very smart thing to do she told me he was a land turtle and what to feed him, to put him in a box with some sand, grass some water and food and just let him be, she said he was probably just traumatized and that he would(if he was still alive) eventually come out to eat or drink. After an hour or so I checked on him and he had decided to grace me with his presence, which was a big relief to me.

When Dana called as he was leaving work I told him that we might(if it wasn't dead) have a new pet and I went on to tell him the story. I decided that when Ryne got home from school that I would ask her to show me what she had seen on the porch, and then surprise her with the turtle when she saw that he wasn't there. Now this sounded like a good idea at the time but it turned out it really wasn't my best idea!Why? you ask, I will tell you why. When I got Ryne off the bus she as crying, the driver told me that she had been crying since she got on and that she kept saying she as thirsty and that I forgot to put her water bottle in her back pack. So at this point I should have aborted my plan and just told her the good news about the turtle but I didn't. I asked her about what she saw and asked her to show me we walked around the back and she climbed the steps only to find disappointment the turtle was gone, she thought the dog ate it (which there was evidence that Hershey was using the turtle as a chew toy), she broke down, I mean she was hysterical all I could think was "bad mommy bad mommy". Now at this point I really should have given up the charade BUT I didn't, I just played it off and told her maybe it went home, or something this didn't help she couldn't even talk through the tears, I led her into the house and walked her over to the table and Dana presented her with the turtle and we asked her if that was the one she had seen, she said yes through her tears, help the turtle and told me that I wasn't very funny!

By the time Ryne was given the turtle he was pretty use to us, Dana had him on the table and he was walking all over the place the kids enjoyed watching him while we discussed names, after many names were suggested we let Ryne make the final decision and she chose Spike (my choice would have been Survivor:)). We talked about how to take care of him, and how to hold him and all that jazz, Ryne was just thrilled with the idea of having a pet turtle, I mean she has been wanting one ever since that day in Sunday school, in a un-expected way her wish came true. Kaleb was captivated by the turtle all though we did have to explain that this turtle wasn't a mutated "Ninja Turtle" and that he couldn't talk or do kung fu, Kaleb took this news pretty hard he was very disappointed! Ellie even seems to like Spike she got a close up look at him when they were both crawling on the floor!

Today we got out our old fish bowl and the kids helped make him a new little home, at least a temporary one until we can getting him something a little bigger at least it's better than the box he was in. The kids are just thrilled, I thought it was cute today Ryne told me "mom this is a running turtle not a swimming one!" it took me a second to realize she meant that it was a land turtle not a water turtle. I figured that we would go to the library and get some books on turtles, the kids are thrilled with the idea of learning more about Spike. Even though we have only had little Spike for 2 days I have come to like him a lot, I mean turtles really are the perfect pets, they don't bark, or whine, or drool or shed all over the place,they don't poop and pee on the carpet ,they don't eat much and they are definitely not demanding, really turtles (at least land turtles) are the perfect pet and not to mention he was free ya got to like free!! So that's the story of how Spike came to our family.