cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good bye, mummy turtle. I met a box turtle a few weeks after moving to my current house a few years ago. While crossing the stream at the back of my property I saw her there on a little island or delta. She looked very old, even for a box turtle. Her eyes were red, which is odd for a female box turtle. She craned her neck forward and looked at me. I looked at her and said hello. It looked like a nice place for a turtle to be. The next day I went by the same spot again with Ida in tow. She was about 3 years old at the time and referred to it as 'the mummy turtle.' The turtle was still in more or less the same place. I had little doubt that it was sick but there was really nothing I could do about it. A few days later I went back one more time, alone. \"You are dying,\" I told her. She knew. The next time that I walked by, her shell was upside down on the bank, empty. Her bones were scattered all around. I gathered up what I could find of them, placing them all carefully in my hat with the shell and its pair of hinged plates. They are all gathering dust on top of a bookshelf in my study, where I don't suppose that I have touched them in the last 2 years or so. Goodbye, mummy turtle. 4:57 p.m. - 2009-07-01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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