Friday, June 12, 2009

Michael's favorite sleeping area in the house...

...even though he's outgrown it. If you look carefully, you can see that not all four legs of the stool are touching the ground because one determined turtle was going to sleep under that stool no matter what. Michael used to fit easily under it but not anymore. He's slowly turning into a doublewide.

Even though it's almost summer, it's sometimes a little too cool at night to let the turtles sleep outside so I bring them in for the night. Cathy usually puts her head under the hem of the drapes. That's all she needs to feel safe at night--have her head covered. But Michael needs to explore a little bit until he finds the best spot and usually it's under this stool. He might take two trips into the bedroom to take a look at what I'm doing (trying to sleep while listening to those four restless little feet stomp on the wood floor) but he eventually settles down to something. 

And in the morning, I let them out again. 

They get to have their sleepovers in the house just for a few weeks in the spring and the fall when I can't leave them out overnight because of the low temperatures. Normally they'd be put in the basement but that's so depressing after they've spent some time in the outdoors and had their freedom. It's rare for them to have an accident in the house this time of year, probably because it's not that hot out yet and their little cold-blooded systems aren't fully revved up. We have had some accidents but they're so uncommon, it's worth the risk to keep them upstairs. Besides, I don't enjoy carrying a squirming 20 pound tortoise into the basement. It's starting to get dangerous. Ha ha ha.

5 comments:

Gina Martin said...

funny...it never occurred to me that turtles might have personalities. do they interact with you much? do you ever wonder what they think of you? i wonder if they compare notes....

Anonymous said...

Maybe Violet could teach those two how to use a litter box!

Dawn said...

I must say, Michael does add a tad bit shabby chic to that wonderful stool. I love that he thinks he can still fit underneath or much so willfully does, LOL. He is a character that one. I love your blog, it always puts a smile in my day when I read it. Thanks for the humor and the photos are wonderful.

Mental P Mama said...

He really does entertain us....

Maria said...

Gina-for the first time EVER, Michael actually seems to be trying to interact. The twins have never seemed interested in me so after having lived with them for over 15 years, this is kind of encouraging. My old tortoise Lucy (he turned out to be a he and he passed away years ago from some unknown sudden thing-my vet thinks it may have been a tumor) was a wonderful turtle who would follow me around and sleep with the cats in the overturned yarn basket in the closet and would sleep by the side of my bed at night if given the chance. He was a wonderful little friend. I guess turtles are like any sort of pet you have, some will really like you and then there are some who will totally ignore you.

T&C-HA ha.

Dawn-Michael still tries to fit under things that used to be easy when he was a lot smaller... like the library table that poor Stella's cage is on. He's too tall to walk under it so once he does manage to get under it and lift himself up to start walking, Stella is NOT happy about going with him. The bottom of that poor table is so scuffed up from Michael ramming his shell into the wood. Doesn't do much for Stella's piece of mind either.

Oh, and I love all your compliments. :-)

Mental-I think he's doing all of this just for you. :-)