Awww ... !!

The weather's turned fantastic here over the past few days, really unbelievably hot - I've been sleeping on the balcony - and nothing but sun all day long. Time to move my biggest turtle Raphael out of doors for the summer. :-)

Isn't he beautiful? :-)

He doesn't get along with the little ones (Herman and Henrik) so for their safety he can't live in the tank with them. He's got a sort of portable pond to live in which since late August and up till yesterday has been set up in the guest room. This arrangement does have an advantage to it in terms of Raphael's wellbeing ... he does tend to get incredibly frustrated in the tank, from not being able to get out of it even though it seems obvious to him that he should be able to do so (the tank is made of glass :-). Living in the pond, he can get in and out whenever he wants.

Anyway ... yesterday I moved the pond out onto the balcony. It's more than warm enough for him and obviously the natural sunlight is much better for him than his basking lamp which he has indoors. I moved the pond and then the turtle. :-) He seemed to settle down OK. But just now he climbed out of the pond and because I hadn't put the 'gate' on the door (a board in the doorway to the balcony, keeping chelonians out :-) he went into the apartment. And guess where he went. Yup - straight into the guest room to the spot where his pond has been for ten months. Now he's wandering around in there, around the area now vacated by the pond. Awww ... !!

Looks like he's planning to hide in the throw blanket that's still lying in a pile on the floor there, to take a nap. (They normally can't sleep in the light.) My little four-legged friend. :-) I'm going to let him have his nap for a couple of hours. It's a feeding day today, but if he wants to sleep now I'll give him an extra late dinner tonight ...