Indy, a Juvenile Green Sea Turtle with her lunch!
Before I forget about today, I want to write about it! Bullet pointing things again, because, well, I can. Also, PHOTOS!
Starting with the sad stuff, I found out via e-mail that Stewart had been euthanized on Friday. As sad as it was, his situation had been decreasing steadily for weeks and he'd stopped eating. His quality of life was, at it always is in instances of euthanasia, incredibly poor. As was Derby's, who I found we also let go.
In happier news, however, we had three new acquisitions in the past week. The first is a new, HUGE Gopher Tortoise named Lox. He's a digger and he and Vino kept digging to one another as they were successful a few times and hung out together. Before Lox, Vino never showed any interest in digging or going anywhere. Now, all they want is to be together. Although it makes a MESS - all of Lox's food and water were COVERED in a thick (an inch or more!) dirt layer - it's cute. The other two newcomers were LOGGERHEAD HATCHLINGS!!!! More on them in a moment, however.
Lindsey the intern, Allie, Jackie, and I all worked on fixing a new display box and removing an old aquarium display about coral reefs that was outdated by half a decade. In turn, we added photos and information on some sea turtles who were successfully released into the ocean! It took an hour, but was definitely worth it in the process!
I was able to feed the sea turtles their lettuce and veggies. Shakira, as always, never touched them - she seems to do it overnight - but Flurry and Indy gobbled them right up. I remarked upon it to Jackie when I returned upstairs, mostly about how voracious Indy was and was told to go feed her two more pieces of romaine and to change it on her pool's name/diet sign. When I gave them to her, she dug right into them too! A healthy appetite is always a good sign!
I helped Allie in - and excuse me as I spaz here for a moment, but - HOLDING THE LOGGERHEAD HATCHLINGS WHILE SHE CLEANED OUT THEIR POOL!!! I hadn't thought I'd do anything other than help clean, but she had me hold me hands out and I thought that she'd be handing me some sargassum or other odd bits of trash, but she placed a little hatchling in each hand and I nearly DIED, I tell you. Nothing is cuter than something only slightly bigger than your average ice tray produced ice cube.
After holding them once, I was able to place them back in myself. Then I was able to feed them. They get minced fish and a special gel cube that's got a bit of everything in it as well as sargassum. But, just as I was feeding them, Allie came back down saying they'd decided to switch pools for the little ones, so I scooped up the food I'd tossed in as best I could and was then asked to PICK UP AND HOLD - !!! - THE HATCHLINGS BY MYSELF AND HOLD THEM WHILE ALLIE CHANGED THE POOL. If I about died before, I think I resurrected myself and died again. Overall, I held them for about ten minutes between the two holdings, meanwhile one tried to flail out of my hand, the other only wiggling slightly.
If I hadn't been riding on a high before, when I got back up to the office, I was told to feed Caleb. For the first time, by myself, unsupervised. But, I knew the drill; I'd witnessed him fed a few times, so I was okay. I tossed the first piece close to him to get his attention, then, when I had it, tossed the remaining three pieces around the pool and booked it out of there. We're doing our best not to imprint upon him the correlation between food and humans.
Held Lox while he received his fluid injection. He's a HUGE boy and didn't even fight it one bit. However, when I put him back inside for the night, he kept trying to climb the side wall and, at one point, had to be flipped over as he rolled himself onto his back. Even Vino tried to get to him at this point, scratching half-heartedly at the wall between himself and Lox. Silly boys. Who knew tortoises could be BFFs?
Put all the tortoises away by myself! Winkie, Buck (who is clear to go outside now and, hopefully soon, will be able to be released!), Nueve, Calzone, Vino, and, of course, new boy Lox! I accidentally put Sonya the Box inside, but apparently she's outside all the time now, which is where she'd rather be anyway!
Lastly, I was able to bring Kringle downstairs and outside for the night (and Monday!) and tuck him in as it were.
I was able to sneak into the gift shop a few minutes before it closed and bought a few things since we have 25% off right now. I bought a honu necklace that is the EXACT outline of a tattoo I want to get some day, another necklace that came with a mussel that contained a pearl (mine, an ovalish white pearl) that you put inside the pendant of a turtle, a "peace, love, turtles" sticker, and a hippie-ish "Good Karma" turtle notepad that is adorable. To boot, while I was in there, one of the employees who made the other Turtle staff and intern earrings and I asked about her making me a pair and the cost and she gave me a blue pair for free! They're adorable!
Gopher Tortoise board telling us who goes where and when.
Lox again, closer this time, and still a mess!
Indy chasing her food under her cover.
Flurry trying to get to her romaine leaf!
Indy, using her flippers to help rip at her newfound bonus romaine.
Indy, eating her new romaine!
Lox, using both legs this time!
Kringle at the end of the day, ready to go outside!
The Loggerhead hatchlings. I mentally nicknamed them Loki and Thor, though they won't be around long enough to get true names. I blame Tumblr entirely for their mental nicknames, by the by! For a size comparison's sake... the brown chunk floating in the middle? It's a gel cube molded by your average ice cube tray. They're an ice cube with legs and a head, basically.
Unofficially "Thor" the little Loggerhead hatchling!
