Shanelga Helga: Carusoe

Sunday afternoon, after a fabulous nap with the Fatties when I got home from church, Crys and I went to the Main Street Arts Festival. A few miles from our parent's house we saw a truck on the side of the road with a huge sign that read, "BABY TURTLES!" I started screaming hysterically for Crys to turn around (oddly enough, I was a passenger for the day!) and so she made a quick u-turn. I practically ran to the man's truck to inspect the turtles. I knew immediately that they were Red Eared Sliders and it was all I could do to contain myself from picking them all up! I calmly asked if I could hold one and was pleasantly surprised when the man said I could. I had been eyeing one turtle in particular (there were about 30 turtles total) and the second I picked him up, I just had to have him! Crys was a little hesitant because she gets really worried when any of our animals are sick or act even a little bit strange. It didn't take long to convince her though. She's the only person I've ever known (besides my pops) to love turtles/tortoises as much as me! We are constantly fascinated by them and consider them to be the most amazing creatures alive today!

After hours of deliberation, a facebook poll and a few emails, I decided to name my little baby Carusoe. I've liked the name ever since I saw The Water Horse, even though technically his name was Crusoe. Another option was Rocky and I even thought of naming them after Rocky's turtles, Cuff and Link, but Crys didn't like either of those names for her turtle. Because Crystal's has a perfectly round shell, she named her Cupcake but I think I'll be calling her CiCi. For the record, we don't know the gender of our turtles and we won't for a few years. We just have very strong feelings, call it a turtle mom's intuition, that mine is a boy and Crystal's is a girl. Here are a few pictures from Carusoe's first day as a Reyes...