Fiona Or

Hello,

My name is Fiona Or and I own a turtle.

Tortellini is a male box turtle and I’ve had him since I was nine. Please note that if someone gives you a box turtle in Georgia, it is illegal unless you have a permit that the turtle is for educational use. I did not know this when I was nine and neither did my parents, so I own a box turtle.

I would like to release him, but I can guarantee that he will not make it a week outside. He no longer fully closes his shell in the face of danger. If a bird were to pick him up and fly, after a few seconds of being suspended in the air, he would stick his head and legs out and go air swimming. I once moved him to the other side of his enclosure to clean up one side, and he didn’t know how to get back to the other side to drink water. His enclosure is just a rectangle box.

Tortellini is also an extremely picky eater. He will ignore any veggies placed in his food dish, but the moment he sees a worm, he’s ready to sprint a turtle marathon. If I put a worm under any vegetable, he nudges the vegetable out of the way with his little claw. If I get him to accidentally take a bite out of the vegetable, he spits it back out.

For all the faults I’ve mentioned about my turtle, he still has more. He can stare at a plain wall for three days straight as if it has generations of turtle secrets scribbled upon them. Sometimes, he remains burrowed for so long that the best way for me to check if he is alive is to poke that biggest mound of dirt in the enclosure and see if it shifts. He thinks my fingers are worms and tries to bite them if I am trying to do something in his enclosure.

My turtle is stupid and always looks mildly offended. I like him very much and hope he lives another 20 years like box turtles are supposed to.