Dear Members and Friends: Our 35th Anniversary Spring Meeting will be held on April 23 at the Robbie Waters Library , 7335 Gloria Drive, Sac 95831 beginning at 5 pm. The group before us will be creating mandalas and I might arrive earlier and attend that event. How about you? It begins at 1pm but I don't think I'll be there that early because I don't want to be at the library for 8 hours!! But I love learning new crafts! There will be a chocolate cake at the meeting to celebrate the event and the knife will be hidden until it is time to cut the cake to prevent the fiasco that happened at our 27th Anniversay meeting when someone in the back of the room cut open the festive cake box and then cut the cake with their own knife and served it to the people sitting near the back of the room, DURING THE MEETING, leaving TWO PIECES for the rest of the people sitting up front. To this day, no person has ever confessed and so the puzzle of who carried a knife into the library will go on for a long time and since I didn't hear of anyone getting sick, I assume the knife was clean.

At the meeting, we will discuss coming out of hibernation; how to build your own incubator and also, how to dig up the eggs OR should they just be left in the ground??? How do you protect them???? How long do you wait before giving up??? Let us hear your suggestions at the meeting.

The Fall meeting didn't go as planned because Father Dimitri was ill and couldn't attend and do the pre-hibernation checkups, so Dr. Torres stepped in to go around the room and check out the pets you brought for the event and he did a GREAT job filling in. THANK YOU SO MUCH, Jose!! You do so much for the club and it is totally appreciated!! And we thoroughly enjoy seeing your family at the meetings and Turtlerama events as well.

I apologize for not publishing a Winter newsletter, but there was absolutely nothing to say! At the beginning of January, I felt bad not seeing everyone so I decided to have an impromptu gathering of club members at the Round Table on Florin and I-5 - they have a very nice meeting room, enough seats for 60 people and it is private as well and the best thing is that the room is FREE!! I put the invitation on FACEBOOK and about 35 members attended and we had a great time chatting, eating pizza and salads (the cost was about $100) for all of the pizzas, salads and drinks. And we did have a raffle which was great and we were there from 2 pm until about 5:30. We can certainly do this again, have our meetings at the pizza parlor, however, we can't bring in any animals, of course. Or January will be our pizza meeting from now on. It really was a fun gathering.

SEE YOU AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING

SPRING HINTS: Melissa has been stressing water water water and I totally agree. In our very dry climate in Sacramento with no rain from February until November (in a normal year) the soil and the air become very dry, make sure you have plenty of fresh water available for your pets all around the yard. If they are reluctant to drink, just plunk them in shallow water often so they don't dehydrate. Bring out the 'misters' too to add humidity to their environment.
Please don't feed hamburger or steak to your pets. The smell will draw the raccoons and other harmful creatures to your yard. You've heard me say what goes in comes out the other end and if it smells going in, well, it smells worse later on. Smell the turtle pellets too. If they have a strong fishy odor to them, I'd avoid them. For the same 'in and out' reason. Don't take chances.
Check often for pet hair, human hair, baggie ties, little white rocks the tortoises like to eat, plastic bags, needles, pins, children's small colorful toys, anything they can climb on and tumble upside down over, the list is endless. I think I told you that I impaled my big toe on a pin two years ago in the back yard. Dangers are everywhere. In fact, my neighbor, Monica, told me that a hawk has built a nest in the large tree in the yard next to mine. Now I am worried. Is it the same hawk Jim Corbett and I saw one day when he was visiting, the one who swooped down to pick up a fake cat I had sitting on top of an enclosure? The hawk must have realized it was not real and zoomed back up into the tree...... Can someone tell me if the Bunker is in danger?????

AT THE BUNKER

Unlike the last two years, Spring did not spring early enough. We were treated to drought ending torrential rainfalls and cold weather until the end of March. I did have some losses which were heartbreaking. The winter seemed to last longer and was colder than I ever remember. The East coast was getting the warmer weather and after last winter's record snowfall, I was happy for them. They needed a break!

The long cold wet winter did affect many of our pets and I've been dealing with a lot of calls regarding sick pets with swollen eyes, lethargy, not out of hibernation yet, etc.. I do believe a string of warm days will go a long way towards returning them to good health. If not, let me know. Or we can discuss it on our Facebook page. We have a good network of people with great ideas and advice there. Thank you all so much for your help.

The Bunker residents, who don't hibernate, had a peaceful winter lying on their heat mat inside of the greenhouse. Others who refused to hibernate landed in there too. Zappo the Wacko slept 'somewhere' in the yard and came out in early March to search for my feet. I placed him into the greenhouse at this time because being chased, having my feet mounted and bitten over and over again is very annoying when I am trying to work in the yard or am just standing there minding my own business. WHACK. Plus, the Bunker has many visitors who don't appreciate being assaulted either. He just appears out of nowhere, running at people's feet at top speed! The Bunker is a magnet for weird tortoises! If I dangle a tomato in front of his face, he will bite at it with frightening force. I sometimes wonder if he is more hungry than anything else???

Also, putting him up on a table in the yard will prevent him from hurting anyone. Most tortoises have depth perception and will not go off the edge of a table and fall to the ground. (I'm sure there are some exceptions!!) But I have never seen one fall unless it slid off. So there he is walking round and round the table not daring to fall off and harm himself, but he has no trouble harming people. I became a victim 5 days before our Turtlerama last August. I was quietly watering some plants on a lovely sunny warm day and suddenly I saw him coming at me at full speed. I stepped back and immediately fell over something and ended up on my back with the hose nozzle pointed straight up in the air as well as my feet and the water was raining down on my face. I turned my head to see him heading straight for me, head bouncing as he approached and I got up as fast as I could because I didn't want to find out what he would have done to me had I stayed on the ground. I was bruised and soaked but I was standing up, safe (except for my feet) but the most curious thing was the fact that I had the running hose in one hand and in the other, a cactus in a pot! I guess I must have grabbed it on my way down? It was miraculously unharmed!! I still have a bump on my leg tho....

I didn't tell anyone of my ordeal because Melissa had broken her foot at the time and I didn't want to take her place as the newly injured in the club....but her injury was not tortoise related, or was it???

For Sale: Baby box turtles $25 each. They hatched last year and are eating well.
Call Corrine @ 707-648-1037 or email: turttort16@yahoo.com