an adventure
My friend and I went semi-hiking (meaning in the woods with the shoes and the mentality but without the pack and the endurance) today and, on our second loop around the lake, we encountered a red sniper turtle with a body the size of a CD-ROM. Since we are rational, law-abiding people who make sensible choices, we decided to pick it up and hike it back up to her car. Then we brought it to my house and placed it in my pond.
I thought that my parents, especially my dad, would be thrilled. Here we had found a turtle almost identical to the one in our kitchen but ten times bigger! My dad was the one who had brought home Crash (Fancy-Pants) and I felt proud of finding a bigger, better version. Once released, Chester (as we had named it) swam energetically around my little pond, splashing under the waterfall and frolicking with the nine koi fish (each one-foot long).
However my dad was not pleased. He claimed that one of the koi had a chunk missing from its back that had been caused by Chester. However I countered that Chester had just entered the pond and the wound on the fish was an old one. Also, Chester was not a snapping turtle but instead a variant of a box turtle and therefore would not attack fish.
...Or so I thought. After my disagreement with my dad (it's a long story but he's been wrong 2 out of the 3 times he's yelled at me over the past 24 hours and that was why I was so adamant about my being right), I decided to google the phrase 'turtles koi' to see whether or not turtles and koi are unable to coinhabit a pond. Turns out that all turtles are fish-eaters, whether they be snapping turtles or no. One particularly graphic website even described how a medium-sized turtle (a la Chester) would attack large fish (a la the koi) stealthily, bite by bite, until one day it would rip off the fish's face and wait until the fish bled to death. This same website offered an array of traps for one's turtle problem but the traps looked needlessly elaborate, took a long time to work, and were also very expensive.
But I knew that the last thing my dad wanted to see (and the last thing I wanted him to see) was one of his prized koi floating belly-up sans face. Add to that the fact that each one of those purebred beauties cost about as much as a year's worth of college textbooks and I knew that I had to act fast.
After a few fruitless attempts using my arms in the pond, I decided to take drastic measures. I changed into an old one-piece suit, my water booties, and a pair of blue plastic goggles. Then I prayed a few times before stepping onto the algae-coated bottom of the pond. The water rose to my hips but I still could not access the turtle as it had darted underneath a big rock slab that lay across one corner of the pond. I knew what I had to do but the thought of dipping my face and hair into the slimy pondwater was an unappetizing one.
Two things motivated me to continue at this point -- the thought of the look on my father's face upon seeing me, water booties goggles and all, holding aloft the captive turtle and also the thought of what a great story this would make (if successful). So I held my breath, dove under the rock and emerged victorious.
Right now Chester is rummaging about the leafage near the stream out back and I am freshly showered and feeling quite triumphant.
peace, annie ^^
I thought that my parents, especially my dad, would be thrilled. Here we had found a turtle almost identical to the one in our kitchen but ten times bigger! My dad was the one who had brought home Crash (Fancy-Pants) and I felt proud of finding a bigger, better version. Once released, Chester (as we had named it) swam energetically around my little pond, splashing under the waterfall and frolicking with the nine koi fish (each one-foot long).
However my dad was not pleased. He claimed that one of the koi had a chunk missing from its back that had been caused by Chester. However I countered that Chester had just entered the pond and the wound on the fish was an old one. Also, Chester was not a snapping turtle but instead a variant of a box turtle and therefore would not attack fish.
...Or so I thought. After my disagreement with my dad (it's a long story but he's been wrong 2 out of the 3 times he's yelled at me over the past 24 hours and that was why I was so adamant about my being right), I decided to google the phrase 'turtles koi' to see whether or not turtles and koi are unable to coinhabit a pond. Turns out that all turtles are fish-eaters, whether they be snapping turtles or no. One particularly graphic website even described how a medium-sized turtle (a la Chester) would attack large fish (a la the koi) stealthily, bite by bite, until one day it would rip off the fish's face and wait until the fish bled to death. This same website offered an array of traps for one's turtle problem but the traps looked needlessly elaborate, took a long time to work, and were also very expensive.
But I knew that the last thing my dad wanted to see (and the last thing I wanted him to see) was one of his prized koi floating belly-up sans face. Add to that the fact that each one of those purebred beauties cost about as much as a year's worth of college textbooks and I knew that I had to act fast.
After a few fruitless attempts using my arms in the pond, I decided to take drastic measures. I changed into an old one-piece suit, my water booties, and a pair of blue plastic goggles. Then I prayed a few times before stepping onto the algae-coated bottom of the pond. The water rose to my hips but I still could not access the turtle as it had darted underneath a big rock slab that lay across one corner of the pond. I knew what I had to do but the thought of dipping my face and hair into the slimy pondwater was an unappetizing one.
Two things motivated me to continue at this point -- the thought of the look on my father's face upon seeing me, water booties goggles and all, holding aloft the captive turtle and also the thought of what a great story this would make (if successful). So I held my breath, dove under the rock and emerged victorious.
Right now Chester is rummaging about the leafage near the stream out back and I am freshly showered and feeling quite triumphant.
peace, annie ^^
posted by Annie at 6:10 PM
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