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AmberEve wrote:My bf throws parties. His last party was successful. He'd been nagging me to get a dog for a straight month. I didn't want a pet. I'm allergic to furry things. He is extremely compulsive. He used to have a spider so we had a 40 gal tank, heaters, thermometers, and a little food dish. So he talked me into getting a turtle. We went to Pets Mart and there were two red-eared sliders and an African side-neck turtle in this little glass enclosure with a pre-formed pond. The employee showed us both turtles. One pulled it's head in, while Morla kept hers out and was very curious. I picked her. =)
We brought her home in a little box with holes in it (I still use it to bring them outside but Morla can now climb out of it when I set it down). We first thought she was a boy and named her Captain Spaulding (my bf loves evil clowns and House of 1000 Corpses is one of my favorite movies ). After doing research I found out she was probably a girl. She is a little character. She would follow our finger and this feather I have through the glass. Everytime I picked her up she'd try to bite me and hiss, sometimes so much she almost bit her own arm. I would leave her alone for a couple days then try again. I was discouraged because I thought she didn't like me. She seemed nicer to me after I figured out she was a girl and started calling her a girl instead of a boy. I had to find a cool girl turtle name. One of my favorite movies when I was a little girl was The Never Ending Story. I thought of the scene where they were in the Swamp of Sorrows and the climbed on that big turtle to ask it a question. I couldn't remember the turtles name so I asked my friend Google. It said the turtles name was Morla, The Ancient one. So that's how she got her name! =)

Well now we needed a Captain Spaulding. So my bf and I discussed getting a male turtle and possibly breeding them down the line. He wants a turtle pond in the backyard we don't have yet. Pets Mart only had that poor African side-necked turtle left (nobody wants him =( ) So I went over to Petco and they had a bunch of RES in a tank with a rock structure that was partially under water in the fish section. I watched them for awhile and looked at their nails. There had to be at least 10 turtles in didn't look to be that big of a tank. Most of them were stacked ontop of each other. Some were asleep in the corner. I wanted to make sure I was getting a male so I asked the gentleman at the front. He called someone over and it took awhile. The lady that helped me was this very robusk, short haired, older woman that didn't look very happy to be there. I asked her if they had any boy turtles. She told me."We're not allowed to sex the turtles." O.O I pointed to one with longer claws and said, "There, that one looks like a boy." She was asking me questions and every question seemed like she was discouraging me from buying a turtle. LOL I told her I'd be back later that day with my bf. After my bf got out of school we went and watched them for awhile. He suggested this darker looking one. I saw Captain Spaulding who was a pretty light green and said, "No I want that one. He matches Morla." We had different employee help us. I pointed to Captain Spaulding and said,"Is that a boy?" (I figured maybe the right question would get me the answer I needed) He picked Spaulding up, pulled back his tail, looked and said, "yep." So we took him home in the same little cardboard box they used for Morla (only it said Petco on it)

When we brought them home and introduced them, Morla went up to him and started that little fanning thing they do with their front claws. I thought they were mating already! YAY! LOL I later found out that a. they are too young to mate and b. that was Morla telling him who's boss! He's a very mellow turtle. He reminds me of Crush from Finding Nemo. Right off the bat we were able to handle without him getting stressed. He just pulls his limbs in his shell and looks around.

Now Morla loves me. I take them outside and she comes over to me. She'll climb on me and over me. Spaulding will run away from you instead of coming to you when you come near him if he's not just chillin' in the grass. Morla is the more dominant turtle. She's always pushing Captain Spaulding out of the way. He'll be sleeping and she'll just plow right into him. Morla is always up on the turtle dock all spread out, Captain Spaulding just sits at the edge of the ramp with this head out watching her. They're so cute and fun to watch. =) I never knew I'd be this into turtles.

Tenodera wrote:What was your turtle doing when you were seeing him/her for the first time? and how did he/she come home?