Last night, while I was working in my yard, my neighbor's boyfriend, R, called me over to the fence to show me a turtle he had found. It's a six foot tall fence, but I climbed onto some cinder blocks to see what he had. R wanted to know whether the turtle, a 9" Texas map, would be ok living in an upright kitchen trash bin.
R is very friendly, but not very bright, and he couldn't see why it couldn't just live in the yard like my torts do. I asked my daughter to bring me on of my Russians over, and I was showing him the difference between turtles and torts when the neighbor, M, went into a manic rage. My daughter Jordan was also leaning over the fence by this time, and was proudly showing off Sophie, her sulcata baby, when M snatched Sophie from Jordan's hand. R was by now holding and admiring the Russian, and he asked her to please give the baby back. Instead, she stepped back out of our reach and started squeezing Sophie's shell, and laughing. R stepped towards her, but we both knew that upsetting her would just make her kill it, so we tried talking calmly to her while she kept laughing, and trying to pry the little torts feet and head out with her fingernails. Finally she let R get close to her and he was trying to talk her into giving Sophie back, when she reached out and grabbed the Russian from him. She immediately tried to shove tortoise in his face. R stumbled back, while she tried repeatedly to hit his head, and once he was out of arms length, she drew back and hurled the tort at his head. By some miracle he caught the tortoise before it hit the ground, and he backed up and handed her to me over the fence. At this point, while we watched helplessly, M still laughing, rushed at R, and when he dodged out of the way, she lifted up Sophie, and slam dunked her hard into the trash bin of water with the turtle. R was able after a few very long moments, to get Sophie out and pass her back to us.
After all of this R was still wanting to know if M could feed the Texas Map dog food. As I continued to talk to him, (the damage to my torts was done, and there was nothing I could do about it, but I was still hoping to rescue the turtle.) M, a little calmer now told me how R has bought her little turtles at the flea market, but, "they're all dead now". Now I want to point out that M regularly gets manic and rages, cries, screams, demolishes things, etc. I know of 4 puppies, 3 kittens/cats, and a few parakeets, that R has bought her and have all vanished within 2 or 3 weeks. I have suspected she was killing them, but I have never had any proof that she was harming them. I was trying to explain the aspects of turtle care in hopes that he would decide to set it free. I think M sensed that and that's why she went nuts. As we talked, M revealed that R had stolen the turtle for her from our local Bass Pro Shop. At this point I had had enough, and I needed to check my Russian, comfort my daughter, and gauge the damage to Sophie.
All will recover, Sophie, whom I was sure would be heavily damaged and traumatized, popped right out of her shell, when I picked her up and greedily dove into some squash and cactus.
This morning, after calling animal control, the humane society, etc, and getting no answers, I was able to get ahold of the GM of Bass Pro, and let him know where his turtle was. He wanted to see it rescued, but couldn't intervene without permission of the land owner. Of course the land owner stole the turtle! I didn't want to intervene anymore because I just don't want that woman coming after me. However, the turtle was still in the yard in an upright kitchen garbage bin, and I knew that once the sun reached the tub the turtle was done for, so in the end I "recovered stolen property". I returned it to Bass Pro this morning before they opened, and they were grateful to have it back.
I'm so thankful for the 6' fence that protects my kids, dogs and torts.
R is very friendly, but not very bright, and he couldn't see why it couldn't just live in the yard like my torts do. I asked my daughter to bring me on of my Russians over, and I was showing him the difference between turtles and torts when the neighbor, M, went into a manic rage. My daughter Jordan was also leaning over the fence by this time, and was proudly showing off Sophie, her sulcata baby, when M snatched Sophie from Jordan's hand. R was by now holding and admiring the Russian, and he asked her to please give the baby back. Instead, she stepped back out of our reach and started squeezing Sophie's shell, and laughing. R stepped towards her, but we both knew that upsetting her would just make her kill it, so we tried talking calmly to her while she kept laughing, and trying to pry the little torts feet and head out with her fingernails. Finally she let R get close to her and he was trying to talk her into giving Sophie back, when she reached out and grabbed the Russian from him. She immediately tried to shove tortoise in his face. R stumbled back, while she tried repeatedly to hit his head, and once he was out of arms length, she drew back and hurled the tort at his head. By some miracle he caught the tortoise before it hit the ground, and he backed up and handed her to me over the fence. At this point, while we watched helplessly, M still laughing, rushed at R, and when he dodged out of the way, she lifted up Sophie, and slam dunked her hard into the trash bin of water with the turtle. R was able after a few very long moments, to get Sophie out and pass her back to us.
After all of this R was still wanting to know if M could feed the Texas Map dog food. As I continued to talk to him, (the damage to my torts was done, and there was nothing I could do about it, but I was still hoping to rescue the turtle.) M, a little calmer now told me how R has bought her little turtles at the flea market, but, "they're all dead now". Now I want to point out that M regularly gets manic and rages, cries, screams, demolishes things, etc. I know of 4 puppies, 3 kittens/cats, and a few parakeets, that R has bought her and have all vanished within 2 or 3 weeks. I have suspected she was killing them, but I have never had any proof that she was harming them. I was trying to explain the aspects of turtle care in hopes that he would decide to set it free. I think M sensed that and that's why she went nuts. As we talked, M revealed that R had stolen the turtle for her from our local Bass Pro Shop. At this point I had had enough, and I needed to check my Russian, comfort my daughter, and gauge the damage to Sophie.
All will recover, Sophie, whom I was sure would be heavily damaged and traumatized, popped right out of her shell, when I picked her up and greedily dove into some squash and cactus.
This morning, after calling animal control, the humane society, etc, and getting no answers, I was able to get ahold of the GM of Bass Pro, and let him know where his turtle was. He wanted to see it rescued, but couldn't intervene without permission of the land owner. Of course the land owner stole the turtle! I didn't want to intervene anymore because I just don't want that woman coming after me. However, the turtle was still in the yard in an upright kitchen garbage bin, and I knew that once the sun reached the tub the turtle was done for, so in the end I "recovered stolen property". I returned it to Bass Pro this morning before they opened, and they were grateful to have it back.
I'm so thankful for the 6' fence that protects my kids, dogs and torts.
