Death of a turtle

I know that the title of this blog is all about my life, Nick's life and Chino's life.  What I've neglected to write about are two little lives that have been a part of mine for about ten years.  I kind of feel bad that I didn't title this blog; "My life, his life, our life, two turtles and a dog named Chino."  I guess its because that turtles don't really DO much besides eat, poop, dig in their rocks, knock down their filter, sun themselves and eat and poop.  It doesn't seem THAT exciting, right?  They're quirky pets, for sure, but have become more of a decoration in our lives, overshadowed by the big yellow mutt with no manners and a love for ice cream.

However, these two little guys have been a part of my life since before Nick and WAY before Chino.  Larry was from a souvenir store (tourist trap) in North Carolina called Wings.  He was teeny tiny, only about the size of a silver dollar.  His small size made him illegal to purchase, so what I bought was a turtle tank, which came with a free turtle.  Shady, right?  Anyway, Larry was named after a Jr. high teacher who looked like a turtle and because my sister declared that all turtles should be named Larry for that very reason.  Seemed random enough, but I was fine with it.  The tank that Larry came in was really meant for a hermit crab.  I kept him in there until I got home and realized that he'd die unless I got a little bit more serious with his set-up.   

Serious meant that he needed a place to get out of the water, a basking lamp, a UV light, a filter and a bigger tank.  After I revealed this information to my dad, it became immediately apparent as to why the two little turtles that he had as a kid had died so suddenly.  Thank goodness for the Internet.  So, after a quick trip to the pet store, Larry's new set up was complete.  He spent the summer in Pittsburgh before making the trip to Columbus in the fall before my junior year of college and becoming our pet in my first off-campus apartment.

Soon after getting back to school, a friend and I made an impromptu excursion to Petland (before I knew about the puppy mill issue), where I found a friend for Larry.  I'm not sure how I was able to buy him, because he was very tiny as well, but I did.  I named him Tommy after the Olympic swimmer, Tom Malchow (it was during or right after the summer games).  Tommy joined Larry in aquatic bliss, on top of our entertainment center throughout college and into my first apartment after graduation.

When I moved in with Nick, the turtles moved with me and became a centerpiece in the dining room, much to his mother's dismay.  At this point, they were in a 40 gallon reptile tank, which took up most of the wall in the dining room.  When we  moved to our house, they received an upgrade to the living room, on a table that we built, especially for them.  We took an old door, reinforced it with a floor board and added a Plexiglas top and voila...turtle tank stand and desk, all in one.

Nick always joked about his "step pets" and claimed to not want anything to do with them, even as he was cutting wood and assisting me with cleaning the tank.  Nick was the one who discovered that Larry had a bit of en eye irritation a couple of weeks ago and helped to build a new platform so that I could add more water to keep the tank clean and to give them more room to swim.  Sadly, it was also Nick who took poor little Larry out of the tank last night and buried him in the garden in the front yard.  I was looking for a toy for Chino and noticed that Larry was at the bottom of the tank.  I knew immediately that he was gone, called Nick and then sat on the stairs to wait for him to come home.  I didn't want him to be dead, but also didn't want him to be alive in his current state.  It wasn't pretty.  I hope that he didn't suffer.  

Despite being dirty and stinky, and sometimes a pain to take care of, Larry was mine and a fixture in my life (our lives) for so long.  It sounds corny, being sad about a turtle, but I can't help myself.  So now its just Tommy, holding down the fort, by himself for the first time in a long time. I hope that if there is a turtle Heaven, that Larry is there, swimming frantically, eating constantly and soaking up the sun.