Most of those who know me, no three things about me: I have lots of Pleos, I love animals and 2013 was a "Bumper year" for loss of animal life as well as personal injuries...
I will not go into the details as they are far too sad and most know about them. My most beloved cat of all time was Karl Kat who I lost to Severe Anemia brought on by CRF and probably cancer on June 12th, 2013, followed two weeks later by our oldest cat, Aiffa who was about 19-20 years old, my daughter's cat...
In April 2013 while driving to see a movie, I happened to see what looked like a turtle on the sidewalk...........I asked my husband to back the car up and sure enough, it was a turtle, a Red Eared slider, a very common aquatic turtle. Nobody claimed or wanted her, so we decided to keep her and I posted a cute video of her on our back porch swimming happily. Shortly after getting Sea Biscuit, we decided she needed a companion and went to get a friend at Petco. We adopted another female, we named Cookie.(smaller.)
This was May.....by June Karl Kat was going downhill fast and most of my attention was focused on trying to save his life. He lost the battle on June 12th, 2013. I was and still am devastated by his death..but life goes one. We were gone for only about forty minutes to go bury Karl Kat on family property a few miles away. It was daylight and in June a warm day. When we got back it was time to bring the turtles in, ( So raccoons would not give them................) and I could only find ONE........Cookie was gone. vanished. My husband was convinced that Ravens had carried her away.
I searched for over two hours by flashlight and all the next day. but nothing. As time went by, I accepted the grim prospect of our turtle being stolen by Ravens. Then about three weeks later, our first turtle , Sea Biscuit also vanished and we knew it was RAvens............. >:(During this time we bought a new turtle to keep Sea Biscuit company...now we were down to one little turtle again. and figured out a way to keep any predator bird from flying down and stealing turtles during the day, by placing tomatoe wire planters over the top of the pond they were in.So after Sea Biscuit vanished, we had two turtles gone and one turtle all alone again, it was either give her away or buy one more companion......for the last time...
This was June 2013. and no more vanishing turtles they are safe during the day and come in during the night where they are safe. Time marches on............This past Sunday, February, 17th, while trying to fix the fence in our yard so Karuna our kitten could not escape.........I was shocked at what I saw....................Miracles happen if you do not give up hope!
There in the dirt, was a LIVE Turtle............It was little COOKIE, who vanished on June 12th, more then 8 months earlier, surviving the low 30's and even days in the 20's. She had not been stolen by RAven's but probably climbed over the edge of the pool she was in, fell off the deck and into the grass, lost and on her own all this time. Starving and surviving on a diet of slugs and snails and some green plants, weak and she lost half of her tail.
IT IS A MIRACLE AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED...I am convinced that my dear departed Karl Kat led me to find Cookie in the yard while there was still time to save her..................believe it or not, but it is a million to one that I would ever find her and I have. Here is the short video of before vanishing along with Sea Biscuit and after finding her a few days ago. Excuse the video, my computer is giving me some problems....
RWM
****NOte. the beginning is quiet with no comments this is normal.
