Why do turtles die?

My oldest granddaughter has the family affliction. She loves animals.

Unfortunately for her, her little brother is allergic to anything with fur, feathers, or basically a mammal or bird. That leaves reptiles and whatever turtles are.

A has been begging for turtles for the last year. Last week, her mommy bought two of the tiny salmonella-carriers from The Turtle Man who drives The Turtle Truck. A was as happy as I've ever heard her. She named them Tootsie and Cutsie. (These turtles are illegal in Florida, and probably in most other states, too.)

As it happened, her favorite was Cutsie. He was the smartest of the two, and of course was the cutest. Notice that I'm using the past tense.

Cutsie got sick yesterday morning with whatever ails turtles. My daughter (J) called The Turtle Company (I'm guessing here) and was told that they need to be outside in the sun for at least 12 hours each day. J had put them in a window, but she was told that filtered out whatever the turtles needed to stay healthy. So she took them outside into the hot Orlando sun.

Well, since they were in a tiny, maybe one-gallon tank, the water heated up pretty fast. When J checked, poor Cutsie was pretty much a goner. She didn't tell A about it, just told her after school that Cutsie wasn't feeling well. By this time, Tootsie was able to move only its head but was still alive. Barely.

She'd already ordered special things for the turtles, including special food and a UV-A and UV-B light, along with a replacement turtle. She was hoping that the replacement would show up before Cutsie floated off into the Great Pond in the Sky. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

A was talking to me when J told her that Cutsie was gone. A just wailed and was inconsolable. It's hard to be six and a half.

But within a few minutes she'd accepted it and was hoping that Cutsie II would be smart, too.


UPDATE: Two new turtles arrived this morning and are healthy (so far) and bouncing off the walls of the tank. And J gave Tootsie some of the vitamin paste and he immediately began swimming around the tank. He's now basking in the glow of his new heat lamp.

So far, so good. A will be getting home in ten minutes and will be a very happy little girl.


UPDATE UPDATE: Yesterday Tootsie wasn't doing much moving, but he wasn't dead. Yet. A and I didn't discuss him too much. "How's Tootsie today?" "Okay." "How's B2?" "I have no idea." "He still lives there, doesn't he?" "Yes." "Are you still excelling in math?" "We're not doing much math these days." "How about reading?" "We're not doing much of that either." "Have you written any more letters for me?" "No, we're about out of paper." Pretty much ended that conversation.

She's in the first grade, and I suspect that they are doing some of those.