R.I.P., Turtley

Our latest emotional drama has been the death of Ethan’s pet turtle, Turtley, that we’ve owned for less than two weeks. The sadly-ironic part was that of the two turtles we ordered, Turtley was the one Ethan chose, and by default, Reid got the other one that ended up living. (Ethan was the one who has been asking for a turtle for months.) Reid has agreed to change his turtle’s name from Sweetie to Turtley S. Weaver, as suggested by Ethan.
Last night was very emotional when I suggested to Ethan that Turtley might not be sleeping, but dead, because he didn’t retract his head or limbs when touched. We looked up information on-line and he seemed very bothered by some chat-room advice (about someone else’s turtle in a similar predicament) that said, “I don’t think your turtle is hibernating.” With tears in his eyes, he drew a heart-breaking picture depicting Turtley with wings going to Heaven (the Sun) while Ethan mourned for him on earth, both of them with broken hearts. Then, when up on his bed, he situated his fake head stone that he bought in the Halloween section (the same one that he set on Timmy’s casket) which reads “I’ll Be Back” with a little plastic turtle on top, which he kissed good-night.
This morning, still in denial, he said, “Let’s give Turtley 7 weeks until we bury him, to see if he’s really dead.” Thank goodness Dad is going to be a doctor and has a stethoscope…. he finally accepted the truth when Derek listened to Turtley’s chest and didn’t hear anything. He asked that we bury Turtley in a place where he can go visit him often… and is already worried about not being able to visit when we move. Fortunately, I think he’ll be okay in a day or two, but in the mean time, it has ripped our hearts out. I even had bad turtle dreams the other night.
So we’ve upgraded to an aquarium, we’ve invested in filters, we even bought eye drops for Turtley’s swollen eyes (before we knew he was dead)….We've only stopped short of calling the reptile vet. Yes, they exist. And yes, I think we've joined the ranks of crazy pet people. I should have done more homework before taking this responsibility on!!! Mark my words, we will not get another pet (except for maybe fish) until I can hold the kids responsible for taking care of them!!!


"Turtley is dead I think --E.W."