I have a tough time writing "big guy" and "Harold" and "He" as I refer fondly to the turtle we owned. The day he came to us, we were informed that the turtle's name was "Stella" and that "she" would enter our lives with a lot of STUFF. Tank, equipment, water conditioners, brushes, stand, food, filters and UV bulbs. The night we brought her home will forever be engrained in my memory (like it or not). She made her new home in Anthony's room and was his turtle from that night on. As well, she also had her gender identity changed, as she was immediately called Harold from that day forward and never was she referred to as Stella (unless in a joke) again.
Harold needed all kinds of goodies when he came-- special foods and treats, water changes, water drops, a meal worm farm, bubbles, a basking platform and lots and lots of electrical plugs! Anthony quickly grew accustom to the gentle sound of the water trickling through the filter, and the constant hum of the bubble aerator as it pumped air into the tank. I know he felt a special bond with Harold, because he always had a constant presence in his room. Harold was soothing. Harold was never judgmental, never unkind, never demanding. The room was never empty at night, in the darkness-- Harold was there too. He was, put simply, a friend.
The days grew into months, the months into years, and I took on the "mom-will-do-it" roll of cleaning the turtle tank because, well, it was a HUGE undertaking and not something like feeding the dog or tossing a ball. It was a half a day committed to the tank! Feeding, and buying became another chore on my list. I often was the nightly "check" on Harold to see what he needed. He was our pet (Anthony's pet) and he was a responsibility (my responsibility). Turtles can live 40+ years, and I don't want a turtle when Anthony goes off to college. I began talking about the "what ifs" of selling Harold. Then I began talking about the "what ifs" of just giving away Harold. It took some time, but to save you reading unnecessary details... the long of the short is that we all agreed that Harold should go to a new home.
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| Lots of work to get it to the car! |
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| Adding tubs of items! |
Please don't judge... he went to Ken Nakamura (turtle enthusiast) off of craigslist!! Did we just suck another innocent and unsuspecting family into a the giant task of turtle-ownership?? Maybe. But, I don't think so, because Ken told us he was "excited"... "had owned turtles before"... "was doing this as a Father's day gift"... and "was ready for the largeness of the tank". What solidified my confidence that he did indeed know his "turtle stuff" was that he told us that Harold was indeed Stella! We had sabotaged her gender identity all these years. Poor thing! She will be better off now with someone who knows that she is a girl!!!
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| Ken, giving the thumbs up and telling us it's a girl! |
And, to wrap this up... we recently sat through a small speech about taking opportunities. Big ones, small ones, happy ones, sad ones. They all change us. The opportunities come, the opportunities go. I'm not saying that Harold was an opportunity I would recommend, but we unknowingly took him on, and as I mentioned... we are now those people who owned a turtle in their lives. I mean, seriously, how did Erma Bombeck get her writing material?? From the sheer grit of everyday life! We live it, we write it, we share it, we laugh and we cry. As the song by Faith Hill says, "Life is hard child, and so is love..." We loved, and we gave away, and Anthony felt some sadness in the goodbyes and what will never 'be' again. But, also in the words of of a famous song "You don't know what you've got till it's gone..." I actually beg to differ in this particular case-- I DID know what we had before it was gone and I'm hanging on to the fact that seizing the opportunity to give Harold away was a good one.
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| Goodbye Harold!!!!!!! |
