Dora Has Words!

 

I am not a dog, but I have a story, too. I am Dora, the red bellied slider. I was having a chat with my Mom and she took my picture. I would have struck a more flattering pose had she warned me!

I am going on 2 years old. No one knows the exact date that I broke out of the egg I was in. I will tell you that I fell into some very cold water. Cold and very nasty. I could not see anything! One day the nasty water got shallower and shallower until there was just a small puddle. 

I was just about to take a walk about and scope out my situation when a huge hand grabbed me! I have instincts for survival, so I quickly withdrew my head and appendages into my shell. The hand was warm and just as I was about to stick my head out, I was flipped over. Not only was I fipped over, the fingers on that huge hand squished me! I had no choice but to stick out all my legs and my head.

The huge hand had a face and it was looking at me. He smiled a big smile and then yelled that it was alive. It? Did he mean me? Another man came over and they both stared at me and rubbed my shell and then we were moving really fast. I heard them talking about taking me to the office and giving me to "her". 

I was learning so much so fast! So, these are people and they have male and females and so do turtles! But 'office' was new to me. Suddenly I saw "her". She took me in her hand that was smaller than the man's. I later learned his name was Craig and the other man was Drew and "her" was Kathy. They all kept calling me "he" and I thought to myself, "Won't they be surprised when I start laying eggs!"

I sat there in the palm of her hand and she looked into my tiny eyes. "I am your new mom and I will be taking care of you." I stared back at her. I will admit that I was scared. She put me in a big glass container and made a pool for me to swim in, then she sat down at her desk and told me not to worry, she was doing some research on how to care for me.

Later that same day she offered me some baby turtle food. It was still too big for my mouth, so she broke it into tiny pieces and I was happy to have a meal. Then to my great surprise she picked me up and said we were going on a walk about. She sat me into the palm of her hand and walked through her gardens, talking and singing to me the entire time. It was downright magical!

I spent a lot of time listening to my mom and now, after all the words and songs, I can pick out words of my own to tell my story. My mom loves me, she confessed to me that she never knew she could love a turtle, but now she happy to have me. 

I am happy to be had by her! The only thing in this new home of mine that I was scared about was the other animals that lived there. There were four dogs and a cat. She showed me to all of them. The dog called Toni Louise tried to take me and put me in her mouth! Mom scolded her and sent her to time out. She is the biggest dog. Two other dogs were almost as big as her, but very short and low to the floor. Cujo sniffed me all over and Eddie did the same before he tried to pick me up with his mouth. He was very gentle, but he teeth were huge! Mom scolded him, too. The little dog, Bo, licked me!

Mom scolded him, too. She told him that turtles carry salmonella and to never do that again. I was stunned, since I was not carrying anything! I had so much to learn! Maybe next time I can share more adventures with you and tell you what I learned!