Two of our baby red eared slider turtles have gone missing. They were in the bath tub overnight in a small aquarium such as this one. Except I had no pebbles or platform.
The two smaller turtles were in there with a larger turtle. I had placed them there while I cleaned their much larger tank in my son's room. I was waiting for help to get the larger tank outside. So the turtles were living in the bath tub.
I fed them last Thursday morning. There were three turtles. I went to Avery school and spoke to her teacher about a few things. By the time I left I had offered one of our baby turtles as the class pet. I had the extra aquarium and pebbles. I told the kids when I picked them up from school that one of the turtles was going to Avery's classroom for the school year. I actually expected more upset but there was really nothing said.
The next morning I went to feed the turtles, since sadly, they were still in the bathtub. Now there was only one turtle. The large turtle was alone. Missing were the two little turtles. It was just strange. Where could two baby turtles get too? They couldn't get out of the Aquarium, never mind the bath tub.
The only time another one of our pets went missing was when Cullen's fighting fish disappeared from its fish bowl. It was in the house less than a day when it evaporated into thin air. Later the same day I noticed that the fish was gone I found our cat, Flirt, sitting over the bowl. Never had I seen him up on the dresser before this day.
So I have 4 suspects; Cullen, Avery, Connor and Flirt. I can pretty much remove Cullen from the list. The idea of letting his turtles go makes him burst into tears. So I know he would not have done anything to harm them.
Avery on the other hand, would be motivated to keep those baby turtles to herself and not share them with her class mates. I remember telling her that she could not, under any circumstances tell her classmates that the turtle was hers and not their. It belonged to the whole class for the duration it was in Ms. Latil's room.
Connor, who has recently turned into a "real boy". He loves to tease his sister until she is in tears. He loves to call people names, "Yes, Mrs Frenchfry". He is very good at ignoring me. And he makes a habit of getting into his brother and sisters things when they are not around. However, he is a little skiddish when it comes to bugs and other crawling animals. He wants to touch them but gets immediately freaked out and drops them.
Flirt, on the other hand, already has a criminal record. But imaging him removing two turtles from 5 inches of water and then getting them out of the bathtub too seems pretty far fetched. He would have had to reach over the rim of the tank and into the water. Balanced the turtle with his paw and flung it up and out of the tank, twice. Really? Really?
When the 4 suspects were told of the turtles disappearance there was really little to no response from any of them. I have prodded, cajoled, threatened and bribed the truth out of each of them. And nothing! I have no confessions, expect the one Avery came up with when I offered her $20 to tell me where the turtles were. Her confession was a pretty good but it pretty much exonerated her.
I keep my nose sniffing for dead turtle smells and my eyes peeled for baby turtle shells but so far, the mystery of the missing turtles has not been solved.
