Dear Members and Friends: Our Summer meeting will be held on Saturday, July 16th at the Robbie Waters Library (7335 Gloria Drive 95831) from 5 pm until ???? However long you'd like it to last. We have the room until 10 pm. Some of you complain about not being able to bring your pets to the meeting, well, it is recommended NOT to bring them into the meeting room, but you can certainly bring them and admire them outside. It will be light out until about 9 pm and that gives us plenty of time to meet, greet, talk, eat and enjoy each others pets. *The next group to meet are parents and their toddlers and you certainly would not want your child or grandchild crawling on a floor a tortoise has previously soiled.* Nobody cleans up in between since it is the weekend. Please bring your questions to the meeting so we'll have something to talk about. And if you don't have any, then we'll just sit around and talk and eat and laugh which is fine too. However, there are often new members or interested people in the room who might feel left out - so please consider them??? And don't forget the more shy members who are there to listen and not talk.

I do not know what is ahead for the McKinley Park turtles. By the time you receive this newsletter, perhaps everything will be resolved? For those not in this area, a local pond in a park is being renovated and the City Council wanted all of the turtles euthanized. Due to the outcry, it was then decided that we, as a group, could begin taking the turtles out of the pond and foster them and then return them when the work was done. That would have been the NORMAL and RIGHT thing to do. I was put in the position of finding homes for the newly homeless turtles flung out of the pond where they were born, since TEAM is a legitimate adoption program. I have an abundance of new homes available but......stay tuned for the rest of the story!!!! And keep in mind that the only place the turtles are non-invasive is IN THE PARK POND!!! Nobody is listening to me!! And people will fill it with turtles again in no time. That's just the way the world is!! People love the turtles there!!!!

Well, back to the club...............would you like to have the Fall and Winter meetings in the pizza parlor? I do like the Round Table in my neighborhood because it has the large meeting room for 60 people and the doors close so it is very private. We do not HAVE to buy food but who wants to be there and not eat and drink??? And it is NOT that expensive. I believe there were 35 people attending in January and the cost was about $90 + a tip and that was not a high price for so many people and the club is treating!! What could be better??? And we can have our raffle. And we can meet all afternoon.
I'm in, are you????

SEE YOU AT THE SUMMER MEETING

 

 

AT THE BUNKER

I had something wild and shocking happen here. Last December 23, Blondie, the leopard tortoise, laid 6 eggs which was pretty normal for her and they were placed in the incubator and on June 26, right on time, after being in the incubator for 5 months, the eggs began to hatch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, - 7????? 6 eggs and 7 babies??? I thought I was not counting right. and it took several minutes to realize that I had TWINS in there. Something I NEVER expected to see in my lifetime or (gulp) take responsibility for. With a little help from You Tube and my OWN instincts, they survived and I don't want to go into great detail here but most of it was documented on our Facebook page. I will answer your questions personally if you like. It was a very frightening 7 to 10 days because they were squirming so much so I decided to keep them in the dark/warm incubator a lot to keep them quiet. And FINALLY everything was dry enough to separate them. WHEW!! If this happens under your watch, please trust your instincts and not what others tell you to do which could lead to their death. Patience is everything!!

Zappo the Wacko continues his vendetta against men, women and children of all ages. Sometimes I forget about him when I have guests At The Bunker and then I hear a scream and my heart sinks. More than one person has said, "OUCH, THAT LITTLE SOB"!!! He will be at the Turtlerama to entertain and abuse as many unsuspecting people as possible. And most people will love the abuse!

The excessively hot weather has caused mostly the Hermann's tortoises to go into a complete frenzy looking for someone to love. And they are very selective - looking at one tortoise in front of them - realizing it is not the 'right' one and continuing on and on actually running at top speed until they find their mate. And then - the chase is on because the females (at least here) want nothing to do with the annoying males.

The only way you can ever have fertile eggs is if the female miraculously becomes trapped somewhere and can't get away. You have to really love and understand these tortoises to appreciate their personalities. They are very entertaining. The sad thing is this: In spite of all of this activity -nobody lays any eggs. I never give up hope tho.

I hope you are all enjoying the summer months and not forgetting the very cold wet winter we went through. There were losses here but I don't see anything that I could have changed to prevent this from happening. Remember, most of the time, you don't know your tortoise or turtle is sick until it dies. And that hurts!! Guilt! But you have to go on or else, give up and collect turtle figurines!!

 

TURTLERAMA TIME: PLEASE let me know ASAP what turtles and/or tortoises you plan on bringing or if you are willing to help members with their exhibits. I do have two spare canopies I bought for the club and am happy to share but you'll have to pick them up here before going to the event. I'll bring refreshments and there's plenty of places to eat and rest right there if you need a break. Please bring your extra plants if you have any, for us to sell as they seem to be very popular. Any donations to the sale table will be MOST welcome. SEE YOU ON THE 16th!!

Sometime in between the meeting and the Turterama, I will have another Box Turtle Blowout, there are some here I'd love to sell PLUS people have left cages and aquariums here that are clogging up the place and making me look like a hoarder. At one point, I had THREE of those 'tortoise homes' lined up against the wall by the garage. I have two huge aquariums that have to go. Use them for your plants or bearded dragons!! (PS - I will need 'stuff'for the raffle on the 16th......Thanks in advance!)