To bring or not to bring ...

... a turtle on one's Christmas vacation. That is indeed the question. I'm going to my parents' tomorrow for five days, and I am so torn about whether or not to bring Raphael. I brought him last year ... but that was for his health, because he was so strongly affected by the severe cold we had last winter - what was it, the coldest November for 104 years? - and I was seriously concerned that if I left him at home he would hide himself away somewhere as soon as I walked out the door and sleep for 120 hours ... underneath the carpet, or wherever he'd end up. (That's not a joke about the carpet.)

It's not good for him to be on dry land for that long, so I wasn't too thrilled about that idea ... and ended up taking him with me on vacation, which he wasn't too thrilled about. It was very confusing for him to be in a totally new place like that, even though he had his pond and basking spot and everything. (My mother also wasn't too happy with him being there, she has ophidiophobia and is repulsed by his supposedly snakelike head. :-D But his presence did not adversely affect her health.)

This year it hasn't been anywhere near that cold ... November was extremely mild, in fact, and it's only over the past few days that December's gotten really cold. So I don't have the same worry as last year. But I'm still thinking about taking him with me. He'd probably be fine at home alone, but I know that he's only really interested in one of the two. He'd much rather stay home than go anywhere else, obviously - turtles like familiar places - but he definitely doesn't want to be alone. He wants to be with me ... ideally in physical contact with me, and ideally all the time. I may have mentioned this before; he is rather oversocialized now and overly interested in human contact. Well, at least contact with me. Reptiles supposedly dislike that, but Raphael seems to have missed the memo on that one.

The past couple of weeks I haven't had much time to spend with him, for obvious reasons ... Christmas preparations and all that that entails ... and I can tell that he's not too happy with that. He wants my attention --> is not getting my attention --> is not happy turtle. Five days' vacation would make it possible to spend a lot of time with him, but then of course he would have to be there with me. So I'd have to bring him, even though he won't be happy about going there. But he would be happy about spending lots of time with his precious twolegs. So what to do? To bring or not to bring?

If only turtles could talk ... :-)

Turtle attack

The camera strap will be defeated ... !!

Turtle from above

I took this picture of Raphael on Saturday. I really like it, because it shows his 'turtleneck' so well ... the fold of skin around a turtle's neck that appears and disappears when they retract and extend their heads. It's as soft as velvet ... which you can actually kind of tell from this photo. :-) It also shows the long claws on his front feet, which look like enormous monster claws in this picture. I like that. :-D

You can also tell very easily from this picture why these animals have some issues with depth perception.

Aw, his little face. :-) Look at his precious little squishy nose. :-)

All the things

If you spend too much time at ICHC and Memebase and so on, you can easily get a little confused ... you tend to start thinking that everybody knows what goes on there, everybody recognizes the memes and so on. This is not the case. Yesterday it turned out that Anne Ida and Tanumine absolutely don't recognize ALL THE THINGS. Alas. My bad, really ... I've been planning to blog about Hyperbole And A Half since forever, just never got around to it. I will soon, I promise. ;-)

In the meantime, I've made my own LOL based on that very meme, using a picture which is absolutely perfect. Those of you who know Raphael will see what I mean instantly. ;-)

I swear on Isaac Newton's grave that he got up there on his own.

A learning experience

Even turtles can have them.

Kinda crappy weather during the day today, but it cleared up towards the afternoon, so that by the time I got home it was actually really nice. I decided to take the guys out ... first time they've been out since Raphael's big scare on Saturday. Of course I was determined to keep an extremely close eye on them all. :-) But I was most of all really interested to see how Raphael would react. Does he remember anything of what happened or has he forgotten it already?

These are relatively primitive animals, with pretty simple brains, so I wouldn't have been surprised if it hadn't made any noticeable impact on him. But he definitely remembers. This little road that is almost just a footpath runs alongside the lawn on two sides. Normally Raphael mostly walks towards one of these two stretches of ... road, or whatever. The one by our building he wants to get across to burrow underneath these bushes that I mentioned. The other one he also wants to cross, mostly to get to a tall hedge that is on the far side of another bit of lawn there. Also to burrow underneath it. He likes to burrow underneath things. :-)

Normally I can't keep him away from these places ... he keeps going there and I'm always having to go bring him back from there. And when I let him go again he immediately heads back again. :-D Usually when I let them out of the cage I have to bring him back from one of these two directions in just a few minutes' time. But not today. It was really weird - I've never seen him act like that before. He stayed away from the footpaths almost completely. Instead of going there, he mostly went up to the tennis court (not as impressive as it sounds) and underneath the big wheeled trash cans that the janitors keep there for garden waste. He normally has little to no interest in going there at all. But today, he hardly wanted to go anywhere else. He did walk around on the lawn as well, but only on the parts of it that are 'away' from the footpath. It took him one hour to finally pick one of his normal routes towards the bushes by our building. I've never seen him act like that before. He specifically steered away from these places where he normally always goes ... but where this really scary thing also happened.

I actually hadn't really expected him to remember. But he does surprise me sometimes.

One inch from death

No, not me, but Raphael. He almost got run over by a car yesterday. I was so scared ... ! and I was so upset too, because I always keep such a close eye on them, and then when I didn't for just a few moments he was almost killed. I would never have forgiven myself. :-(

The weather was fantastic yesterday (unlike today, so I am glad that we went out, all things considered) so I took the guys out to hang on the lawn for a while. I was going out, so we couldn't stay however long we felt like it, I had to watch the clock. When it got to be so late that we really needed to get back in, I did what I usually do, put all my stuff back in the bag and gather up the little fellows and get them into the travel cage. I usually pick up Raphael last, partly because he's usually the furthest away from me (longer legs cover more distance :-) and partly because he hates being in the cage so much that I try to avoid making him stay in it any more than he absolutely has to. So, the usual routine.

I put all my things in the bag and looked around for Raphael. He was on the lawn, walking towards some bushes that are up against the side of our building - he really loves these bushes for some reason and is very often trying to go over to them and burrow in underneath them. To get to them he has to cross a narrow ... it's not even a road, it's really just for pedestrians and cyclists, but every so often there will be a car there, when someone needs to drive all the way up to somebody's front door for whatever reason. When I looked for him I didn't see a car, but there was one, coming along the front of our building. This tiny road is so narrow that there's only just room for one car. But I didn't see anything, and he wasn't that close to the road anyway. But he is soo fast ... !

I turned away to get the little guys, got Henrik first and then Herman and put them in the cage. Picked it all up and started to walk towards Raphael. That's when I noticed the car, it had just turned the corner ... and that's also when I realized, in the same split second, just how far Raphael had gotten - almost out into the road. And he just kept moving. I was so scared ... !! He was too far away for me to reach him before the car would have already passed him. I just ran over there, and every second I expected to hear some awful crunching sound from his shell being run over and smashed. It was such a horrible feeling ... !!!

But he was fine - the car missed him, but it really can't have been by more than a couple of centimeters. I could hardly believe what a lucky escape he had. Of course he was really scared too ... but I think just as much by me as by the car. :-) He was frightened by the car - this was the closest he's ever been to a moving car except the few times he's been inside one - but then I scared him just as much by running over to him and snatching him up and turning him any which way to see if he was alright, touching his head all over, examining his feet and pulling his front legs out to see if he'd been hurt anywhere. But no, nothing. Not a scratch.

It didn't take long to calm him down either, so he really got away entirely scot free. But I was really shaken. Just a few centimeters and ... oh, I don't even want to think about it. I would seriously never ever have forgiven myself. My little grouch. :-) Next time maybe he will have to go in the cage first after all. :-)

Five years of turtle fun

Well, actually a little longer than that, since I got my very first turtle - who is now, sadly, no longer among us - in the summer of 2005. But as far as the current residents are concerned, this is a noteworthy day.

Today it's been five years since I got Raphael. I met him for the first time, and brought him home, on April 20th, 2006. That's pretty crazy. I can hardly believe it's five years ago. Almost half his life. :-) Here he is on their first outing this year, two days ago.

I've had the little guys for about the same length of time. I totally forgot that it was Herman's fifth anniversary with me this spring too. Shame on me. :-) I got him five years ago on March 4th. I remember that so vividly. My little fellow. :-)

Henrik's been here five years on ... I want to say July 12th. Thereabouts. That little clawbreaker ... ! :-D

The first time I met Raphael he wanted nothing to do with me. I tried holding him, but he wriggled free every time and hurried over to his then owner and climbed up on her lap instead. When he came here to live with me it took him a really long time to get used to his new surroundings, and to feel comfortable with me. It's gone up and down since then ... a few times when I've been away on longer trips, he's kind of forgotten about me and we've had to start over, so to speak. This winter I've been really working on socializing him, and I think I've succeeded a little too well. I may have damaged him a little mentally and emotionally. :-) He's rather obsessed with me now, he follows me around if he gets the chance and wants nothing more than to climb on me and get as close as he possibly can. Ideally as close as this, all the time. Click to enlarge.

It's not entirely normal ... like for instance, showing him things has gotten to be really impossible now. If I'm holding him I can't get him interested in anything, almost. It only works if it's something edible that he likes. Other than that, usually no. He used to show much more interest in objects that I showed him, he would sniff at them, maybe touch them, sometimes even try to bite at them. But not anymore. Now he just wants to look at me. :-D Seriously - he'll squirm around any which way to try to look at my face instead of whatever else I'm trying to get him interested in. It's weird. I've always noticed how these animals are so aware of it whenever they're getting human attention. Which makes sense, since captive turtles get their food from humans; they benefit from being aware of some basics of our behavior. But Raphael's really taking it to extremes. I've always said that he's a little weirdo, but now he's living up to that, big time. I literally can't go into the guest room - his room :-) - without him practically throwing himself out of the pond* and running after me. Twolegs twolegs twolegs!! Look at me twolegs!! I'm here twolegs!! Looklooklookatme!!

I'm really glad turtles don't have vocal chords.

*That is, if he's even in the pond, and not waiting just inside the door as he has gotten into the habit of doing pretty much every single day when I get home. o_O

More turtle fury

I posted some pictures of an angry Raphael a few weeks ago ... and then some more the day before yesterday. As you may recall. :-) He is just so cute when he's angry. Now here he is again - this time in moving pictures! :-D I mentioned that he gets angry with inanimate objects sometimes, like the camera ... which he is seen here attacking. Aww, what a cutie. ;-)



Widescreen here.

Moods of the red eared slider: Annoyance

I really wish you wouldn't stick that thing in my face right now ...

You're starting to piss me off ...

I said stop it ... !!

GET LOST!!!

Turtle fury!!

Check out my angry turtle!! :-D It's been a dream of mine for a while - I may have mentioned this - to take a picture of a yawning turtle. I caught Herman yawning this summer, on video ... that's one down, two to go. Today I kind of managed it with Raphael. Check it out - the second picture especially. What a set of jaws! He could almost fit his own head in there. :-D I really like the second shot, it really shows how their jaws aren't hinged like ours, but just attached with skin and muscle, like snakes' jaws. This lets them swallow large pieces of food, a necessity since they don't have teeth, only beaks. Also I really like it because he is so cute when he's mad. ;-)

OK, so he's not yawning, he's just gaping ... but it's almost the same thing. :-) Mouth open. :-) How can I tell he's not yawning? Because when he yawns, he fully extends his head. And he was gaping a lot just then too, he was really angry. Angryturt!! :-D

Click to enlarge the second one if you want to get a really good look. :-)

The gaping is a threatening behavior that they exhibit when they're angry and/or frightened. Why he was angry? Because he's such a little weirdo ... or at least that's partly why. Partly I guess he thought I was getting too fiddly with him. Touching his turtleneck too much. (But it's just so soft and cute ... !) And not letting him climb around exactly where he wanted and breathe in my eye. I don't know whether you've ever had a reptile breathe in your eye, but it's actually pretty uncomfortable. Their breath is cold, so it feels really weird and really not pleasant. But it wasn't all my fault, he is a weirdo too. :-) He got mad at the camera - the strap was dangling in front of him and this was apparently an extreme provocation on the camera's part. He gets those moods sometimes where he suddenly gets furious with an inanimate object that he has previously never shown any interest in whatsoever. He is a weirdo. :-)

Turtle confusion

There was a blackout here tonight - at about a quarter to seven everything just went black. I thought it was one of my fuses that had blown out, but when I went out into the hall it was all dark. The whole neighborhood. :-o That is pretty rare ... it hasn't happened as far as I'm aware in all the time I've lived here, and that's going on five years. I was pretty worried ... it is really cold out now and with no heating, how cold would it get inside? Too cold for the little guys, I think ... so I was worried about that, but there wasn't really anything I could do except wait. So I lit some candles and curled up with a good book.

By the time this happened - the blackout, I mean - it was already dark outside, so of course it got totally dark here in the living room immediately. This was rather confusing for the little fellows. Usually when the light goes out in their tank, it's the basking light first and then the main lights a few hours later ... and when the latter goes dark there's usually some lamps lit elsewhere in the room, so it doesn't go completely dark right away. But that's what happened now. Henrik stood on the bark island and stretched his neck out in this really funny way, trying to look around maybe ... I shone a flashlight in the tank and they came over to beg. Then of course after a little while they went to sleep. That's what you do when it goes dark, obviously. I couldn't blame them.

But then after about one and a half hour the lights came back in the hall, and I fiddled around with the fuse box and got my own lights working again too. Some of the lamps had been on in the living room when the power died, so when I went back in, of course there was light there. And Henrik and Herman were so confused ... !! LOL!! They were lying side by side on the bark island and had obviously just woken up, and they were looking around themselves like ... wut?? :-D Night just started, and now it's day again? Whut? I went to pet them and they threw themselves in the water, they were really out of it. :-D Wish I had filmed it, it was really funny.

Raphael was confused too; he had more light since the streetlamps outside shine in through the window in that room. But still it seemed to be rather strange that his basking lamp switched off, then on, then off again, then on ... I had to reset the timers on all their lights, because obviously the blackout threw off the setting on those. So this was a strange night for my four-legged friends. :-D

Alas, this is not a recent photo. :-(

When, oh when ...

... will my new computer arrive?? I so need it. More things going wrong with the old one every day. :-(

In other news, there's a thunderstorm, so the TV's blacked out and I'm missing half the True Blood rerun (that I have on DVD in any case, yeah yeah). But I love thunderstorms ... at least when I can be indoors. ;-) I just love being inside late at night and listening to the rain drumming on the roof. :-) Raphael did something totally cute today ... it scared the shit out of him but was really funny to me. I didn't get it on camera, alas. But I have a few other pictures.

I'm rereading Persuasion (a Norwegian audio edition that is so fantastically read by Petronella Barker) and of course that makes me think about The Lake House. I want to watch The Lake House again. Aw.

In closing: Do you want to laugh at homeopaths? Then check out xkcd, here. :-D

Turtle walkies

The weather was fantastic here last week, so Anne Ida and I thought we'd make the most of it and try to combine two semi-irreconcilable concepts - a picnic and turtle walkies. It went pretty well, just with more walking than you'd expect at a picnic. It was fascinating to observe the different behavior the four little guys exhibited ... this was Anton's first time meeting other turtles since he was separated from his siblings when he was a little dime-sized critter. We thought it might be fun for him, but it seemed to be awful. Raphael, unsurprisingly, was awfullest.

Since it was a picnic, of course we had food, and as a natural result of this, Herman didn't wander very far. He generally sticks pretty close to me when we're out anyway, but this time he can't have walked more than a fourth of the distance Henrik did. As for Anton, sheesh, he managed a turtle marathon. :-) Herman was quite enamored of this tomato, since it was the same color as the feeding tub, but alas, it resisted his attempts to devour it. I wish I'd gotten a shot of him actually biting at it, but no such luck.

Henrik turns away from the camera a lot, which is usually annoying ... but at least here it shows off some of the layers of pollen he collected in his turtleneck ;-) and on his face as he was walking around.

Anton seems to hate having his picture taken ... he's forever squirming away from the camera. I took a number of crappy shots of him, but look at this one, it's adorable! Although you will notice that he was being physically restrained.

Spot the turtle. Raphael likes to burrow underneath things and, ideally, tip them over.

RUSSIA 2010 - Lost and Forgotten

How the mighty have fallen ... !!

Just last year we all gathered in Moscow to celebrate Russia's victory with a song that, although it's not for everyone (but what song is?), is still quality craftsmanship on some level. Two years after their long-anticipated win, we get ... Golly. I give up. I don't really know what this is.

What are you doing, man?
I'm looking at her photos.
What should I do with them?
Drop them into the fire.

This is one of those songs that really, really ought to have been in Russian. I don't want to know this shit. The singer has this whining voice that's just so annoying and also, look at his face ... doesn't it look like he's had a tiny stroke? Should he even be on a stage, he may need medical attention. o_O And the piano, the guitar ... the quasi-religious lyrics ... there are just all these weird elements that do come together into a whole, but ... ouch, my brain ...

The audience reaction is weird as well, it's like they're at a religious meeting. A revival. I don't want to know what the rest of the Russian lineup was like this year. Ouchie.

Well, don't let me poison your minds ... let Peter Nalitch & Friends do it for you. Peter wrote and composed the song himself. Yes, Peter needs some kind of help. In the absence of which he will be competing with Lost and Forgotten in Telenor Arena on Tuesday, May 25th.



Lyrics here, if you don't value your sanity.

In other news, guess what happened on this very day four years ago. :-) That's when I got Raphael. I can't believe it's been four years! Aw, when we first met he didn't like me, I tried to hold him, but he constantly squirmed away from me and went to his then owner every time. :-( Didn't at all like this strange new twolegs. I hope he likes me now, a little bit. ;-)

Here he is on his first outing this year, the Sunday before last, when it was incredibly warm here. He went digging in the dead leaves along the hedge, so he got a faceful of dirt. Even his nose is full of it. :-D

Here's to many more years of chelonian happy. :-)

Hello!!

Raphael peeping out through my fingers. I think this is such a fun shot.

But then afterwards he was a little bit annoyed ... :-D Don't fiddle around with my eyes, twolegs ... !!

Turtles eating scallops

Today was a feeding day for my little guys and I think Raphael was hungry ... I've been sitting in my chair journaling a whole stack of books on behalf of OsloS-OBCZ after the BookCrossing meetup this afternoon, and he came out into the living room twice to check if there was anything to eat. :-D

Here they all are eating scallops. This wasn't tonight but a few weeks ago. They just got their regular boring food tonight. :-)

Raphael blinking

Raphael has been super active today, climbing in and out of his pond and running around all over the place. Also getting in my way slightly. He's like a cat in that he likes to climb on and stand on whatever book or newspaper I'm trying to read just then. Herman does the same thing. It's like they can tell what my attention is directed at and then they try to get in between me and it. :-D Raphael was so sweet today that he willingly lay in my lap for a while ... even though he was wide awake. Aww. Here he is blinking his pretty green eye, in extreme closeup. :-)

Pretty Raphael

It seems like I haven't posted any turtle pictures since forever ... so now's the time to remedy that. :-) These are some shots I took of Raphael today. Aw, he's so pretty. My mother thinks he's a hideous monster ... I don't understand what the world must look like through her eyes. :-) His lovely coloring, and the intricate patterns on his skin ... and his gorgeous bright green eyes, come on, he's pretty! :-) A beautiful animal. Just look for yourselves. :-)

That's my arm he's leaning against, btw. :-)

I managed to catch him blinking his eyes. OK, he's not so cute right here, but it's fun seeing it. It's so weird when these turtles blink ... it's like the eye partly disappears into the skull. My first RES was bigger than Raphael and when he blinked, you could actually hear it. This kind of soft wet squishy sound. :-)

And another weird thing is that they can pull their heads into their bodies. :-) No matter how many times I see that it always weirds me out ever so slightly. And in this shot he's only retracted his head partway, too. I put my finger on his nose and pushed his head all the way in, but by the time I took my hand away and got the camera ready he'd stretched his neck out a bit again, so this was the best I could manage. :-)

My dream, though, is to one day manage to take a picture of one of them yawning. They are beyond cute when they yawn. The little guys especially, but Raphael too. I just love seeing that. Especially when they yawn under water. :-D But try catching it with the camera ... !! It's an almost hopeless task, but one day, one day ... :-)

Books I've read in 2009 - October

A Chocolate A Day Keeps the Doctor Away by Ashton/Ashton
På kjøret av Jack Kerouac – AUDIO
The Floating Brothel by Siân Rees
Frp-koden by Magnus E Marsdal
I den skogen by Harlan Coben – AUDIO
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
The Broken Crown by Michelle West
Sula by Toni Morrison
Maria Q by Cecilie Løveid
Sky på flukt by Muniam Alfaker
Pol Pots leende by Peter Fröberg Idling
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst – AUDIO
Skryt og skrøner by unknown [Baron von Münchausen] – AUDIO
Kjærligheten skjærer dype sår by Helena von Zweigbergk
Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder
The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper
Den ulende mølleren by Arto Paasilinna

13 printed books, 3,507 pages.
4 audiobooks, 42h 38m.

Favorite fiction:
The von Zweigbergk, I guess. I could hardly put it down ... just like the last book by her that I read. It's interesting, because the main character isn't that ... likeable, or however I should phrase it, but still the whole setting is so gripping, and I can't really put my finger on why. I really recommend these books to anyone who's interested in unusual crime fiction.

Favorite nonfiction:
Frp-koden, definitely ... even though there were other strong contenders too this month. It was so interesting, it really made me think things over and gave me new insight. Also quite well written. Don't know what more one could ask for in a book, really. :-)

Favorite audio:
The Line of Beauty. An interesting 80s retrospective ... convincing and moving. Very well read too IMO.

All the books that don't have links will be reviewed on my book blog shortly.

In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Anne Ida!! :-) She is 32 years old on this All Hallow's Eve. (Right? You're 32, right? o_O) I'm going over to her place later to cook her a birthday dinner and give her two birthday presents that I'm really pleased with myself for thinking up. One of them is specially made and I think it's brilliant ... if I do say so myself. ;-) Can't wait to hear what she thinks ... ! :-)

So, I remembered her birthday, but I forgot Raphael's. :-( He was 9 years old on October 20th. I was going to mention it, but I didn't. Alas. He seems not quite heartbroken. But still, I was going to mention it. My little grouch. Just look at him posing so uncomfortably there ...

Turtles at the vet's

I took the turtles to the vet today ... something I've been meaning to do for ages, but haven't gotten around to (what else is new), but then I finally got the push I needed, on Monday I think it was, to get up off my butt and actually do it. I wanted just a checkup on Henrik and Raphael, because I haven't been to the vet with them at all since I got them, and there were a few little things that I wanted her to look at. Then Herman, he's had this weird little patch of ... I don't know what exactly, or at least I didn't until today ... on his shell above the back of his neck. When I was handling him on Monday, at feeding time, and I started to think that maybe this little patch had gotten a little bit bigger. :-o So I thought that as soon as I can get in, I'm going to the vet now. And this morning I put them all in the travel cage and off we went. :-)

Raphael behaved badly at the vet's office, alas. His desperate and endless attempts to escape the cage got everyone's attention. I finally had to let him out to walk it off a little. :-) He just hates that cage so much, I don't know what it is. He absolutely flat out refuses to settle down in it. He was constantly just trying to escape the whole time we were there. But the vet praised him though, she said that he seemed like such a sweetie because although he was clearly unhappy with the situation, and wanted very much to get away from the place and from her, he didn't show the least hint of aggression. And that's true, he's not at all aggressive, he never bites from anger. He'll hiss at you if he gets really mad, that's the worst he's done. :-) So yeah, she's right, he's a grouch, but he's a sweetie deep down. ;-)

Henrik was a little anxious, he didn't enjoy the subway ride at all, but wasn't too upset at being there, and Herman of course took it all in his stride like always. That little critter just knows no fear. :-) The vet examined all of them and I was reassured about most of the issues I've been ... not worried about, I guess, but thinking about. Raphael has some small 'pockmarks' on his shell that get better incredibly slowly but don't get any worse either ... that's apparently well within the normal range and nothing to worry about as long as they stay completely hard and are completely dry when, well, dry. :-) The weird little hard thingummy in the side of his neck is basically some of the cartilage in his larynx that's been displaced somehow ... either he just hatched like that, or it's the result of some injury ... I'm thinking the latter, because I don't remember that he had this condition when I got him, and he's had a lot of little accidents in the time that I've had him. He's taken a lot of falls. :-) But he obviously has no pain from it, and he has no problems withdrawing his head completely, so it's not an issue. But at least now I know what it is. :-)

The vet didn't think that Henrik is too fat - of course this was the morning of a feeding day when she saw him, so he hadn't eaten, but she said that he seems to be a very healthy weight, and he just looks fat sometimes because his skin is so thick. The other issue with him she didn't get to see, it's the way that he sometimes foams at the mouth a bit when he's walked a lot in the sun, and how his eyes tear sometimes too, again, in the same situations. But she wasn't worried, because he breathes normally, his nose isn't runny, he never wheezes or squeaks when he breathes. So, he got a clean bill of health. :-)

The real issue was Herman and his little mystery. I've worried a bit about his shell, but the vet says it looks fine except for that little patch. His nuchal scute, get this, fell off (!!) a while back ... now that really had me worried, and then that little weird spot showed up. The vet said that the scute falling off isn't normal but also isn't dangerous. As long as the shell is hard and solid it's nothing to worry about. She took two scrapings of the patch on his shell - one of them she's going to send in to wherever they make cultures of these things, and the other one she looked at under her own microscope. Turns out that it is a small fungal infection. :-o My precious!! Regardless of whatever the culture shows - it'll take about a week to hear back on that - that infection has got to go, so I got a prescription for a fungicide which I'll use in combination with iodine twice a day for two weeks. (So it's actually a pretty good thing that I'm not working right now. ;-) I did the first treatment this afternoon and it was boring for a little turtle to have to stay cooped up in the smaller of the two travel cages for two whole hours, which is how long he'll have to be drydocked after every single treatment, morning and afternoon. Alas, my precious!! But hopefully we'll get rid of that little infected patch, which is exactly what I set out to do this morning. :-)

The poor unfortunate prisoner languishes in his cell ...

LEMME OUT LEMME OUT LEMME OUT LEMME OUT!!

See, here's what I mean, he foams at the mouth. And you can see his eyes are very moist too, they're running. But this only happens when he's walked a lot in the heat and is dry and tired and breathing hard, so I guess that's the reason. The vet thinks so, anyway. :-)

I made a video, too. :-)