entry 1: my love letter to those who take care of reptiles

21/02/23

4 those who dont know, i actually own 2 pet turtles!!! i felt like writing abt them cuz smth interesting happened today!!

so. when i was younger i rlly rlly rlly wanted a cat. my parents both hate pets cuz theyre a hassle to look after and clean, and my mum said they smell. so i did not get a cat (i still want one.)

but!! when i was ten i got some fish. unfortunately they all died within a week. lol ! i was v sad at the time but now i find it funny anyway!! cut to 2020 september 8, when i got my lovely two pet turtles. at the time they were both around 4cm in length. ill put a photo for my neocity enjoyers:

(one of them is running off screen- they r so quick! common misconception abt turtle is that they are slow- thats more of a tortoise thing.)

i named them mochi and peach- cuz they both had cute round shells like mochi and peaches. also cuz the names sound cute together! anyway. over these two years i have had them, they've grown to around 14cm!! their adult width!! but they live 4 at least 30 yrs, so... anyway, another photo.

so, i've had these 2 for 2 yrs now. do u think we r close?? yes actually!! not close like a dog or a cat w their owner, but close enough so that they turn their head and sometimes swim towards me when i arrive. (on tank cleaning day they run away tho- they do NOT like their home being disturbed!!)

so, u may be saying: get to the point!!! what happened 2day?? well, i havent rlly taken the turtles out of the tank (apart for the bi-annual MAJOR tank clean) since when i first got them- as i said, they rlly don't like being picked up. but, i read online from many separate sources that turtles like their shells being brushed with toothbrush bristles. so i got the large transparent plastic box i use to funnel dirty/clean water in/out of the tank and filled it up by abt 2cm, and put my unsuspecting peach in there. i've actually been waiting a week or so to do this, but musc turtles like to sit on the floor of the tank a lot, so its a lot easier to take them when they're floating at the surface. plus i didnt wanna take them late at night when they were getting snoozy. who wants to be disturbed at bedtime?

i put peach in the shallow water and they were still- then they ran around like crazy!! poor thing was frightened. i felt bad but i really thought they would enjoy it!! i picked them up once or twice and they dug their claws into my hand (not sure they realised they were doing it tho, lol) and peed on my hand (but peach specifically always pees on my hand when i take them out of the tank, so meh.) i tried a few times, and they did stop the third and just sat while i brushed, but that was the five minute mark and i dont like taking them out for more than five minutes. once i put peach back in the tank they swam to the bottom, fast- but not to the back, away from me!! just to the front, and i think that's an improvement.

so, the point of this little ramble wasnt to just talk abt today and my turtles. actually i was thinking abt how close i've got with them, and how thats sweet. i think its lovely that i can be patient with this little creature, expecting nothing in return but a few turns of the head- and after two years, without properly noticing it we r much closer!! they swim up to me and i hand-feed them sometimes. i love them very much, even if they don't love me that much at all.♡