this morning, tinnu and i packed a wee-bit and drove to the new home, after the temple visits due to shivratri. put him in a bucket, and the bucket on the back seat. he got terribly scared, and hissed and clawed all the way home. once there, he hissed loads when i tried to take him out. but within minutes, being the curious-critter that he is, tinnu began checking every inch of the house at breakneck speed... his! good to know he's fine.

sad thing.. forgot his food at the old place. hopefully, tinnu will nibble the beetroot pieces i have dropped into his smaller tank. i really hope because i am at my wit's end at all the packing and moving still pending. the smaller tank will have to do till saturday. need to get some thermofoam to go under the bigger tank, so the floor and tank.. both stay safe. i have to place the tank closer to a bathroom and to a switchpoint. the filter will now come in handy.







after months of asking, the aqua at koramangala, finally procured some CP. got a can and some red-mint leaves. tinnu's chews on the stalk and lets the leaves float all over the water. to add to it, the other half-eaten food. the tank's a mess. and feeding him in a separate tank is too much work. the filter, when i use it, gets terribly clogged. there has to be some way to feed this critter and still keep the tank clean. get some fishes? the ones that will eat the left over food? whatever.



for now, he looks settled and happy and in high-spirits. amen to that!

tinnu's been good and bad these past many days. some time ago, A(tinnu's previous keeper) came around for a chat and we talked about tinnu. A was pleasantly surprised when i told him about tinnu's routine. A thinks tinnu's getting much more attention and care at my home than his. that's quite a compliment, i think.

loadsa updates on tinnu front:
- a few weeks ago, on a weekend noon, i lay down reading and tinnu clambered up and settled on my tummy. after an hour or so, he made a funny sound. so far, tinnu hasn't made any sound except the hissing. so i put my book away and watched him for a while. and it happened again. he opened his mouth and gave out a loud hiccup and lurched. and again. and again. after four times, he settled down for a nap. that was good fun, to see a turtle with hiccups! heeehaaa.

tinnu's way of relaxing is when he rests on his lower shell, the plastron, and stretches his hind legs and flexes every single toe, so everything about his hind legs are all spread out and in the air.

- another morning, tinnu clambered up to go perch on my shoulder.. and stopped at the neck, so i lowered my head, chin resting on his shell, and held him there tucked that way. and what should the turtle do? instead of struggling to get away, the mad turtle stretched out his legs and went into a slumber! but i had work to do. so i carried him around that way without using my hands, while i made coffee. and put him down later on, fearing that i might drop him. sometimes i don't like the way tinnu's so trusting of me. he has this bad habit of sitting right behind my feet when i am standing in the kitchen. so when i have to step back, tinnu's almost under my feet each time. earlier he'd hiss like mad when he sensed i am going to move and step on him. so, we never had an accident. these days he just doesn't hiss and i end up getting a mini heart attack everytime i almost step on him. so far, fortunately for both of us, i have only kicked him accidentally a few times... nothing really major. but i live in the fear of stepping on him. so i devised a way. my kitchen floor now has plastic sheets in strategic locations... near the water hole, near the fridge, at the gas-stove and near the fish tank. when tinnu begins racing to get behind my feet, i know he's there.

he did that to dad too. dad was doing the dishes one day, tinnu sneaked up to him and tried climbing on his feet. dad was caught totally unawares when tinnu's claws first scratched at his feet and dad pulled his leg away so hard that he hurt his knee. 

- mum and dad and i always discuss tinnu over the phone. they thought i should put some fishes with tinnu so he doesn't get bored. fish that are too big for tinnu to eat , and not very agressive that they'd bother tinnu. goldfish were the best bet. the nearby aquarium was running short of goldfish, so the guy gave me another fish that looked just like goldfish and of the same size. can't recollect the name. these fish are three times bigger than tinnu's mouth and i was hoping tinnu'd leave them alone. so when i first put the four fish in the tank, there was a lot of excitement. the fish began exploring the tank and tinnu behaved like he'd just received a massive dose of adrenaline. in a mad frenzy, he chased the fish, caught one and ate it whole. did i say the fish were three times bigger than tinnu's mouth! that was disgusting alright. before i could intervene, tinnu had caught another fish by its tail. and swam around the tank a few times. then took the fish to a corner and let go of the tail in an attempt to grab it whole, the fish took off like a rocket!

ever since, the fish have always outsmarted tinnu's chase. but then, if the two had to swim straight like in a swimming contest, tinnu'd win all the medals hands down. he swims much faster than the fish.

- tinnu ruined two of my tees.. around the time i put him out of water, he kinda had just pooped. and when he climbed to my shoulder, he had left behind a trail of yuck stuff. i couldn't imagine washing it off. so off they went into the garbage.

- d, a close friend at work, said his son wanted to 'go see aunty's turtle... would it be ok to drop by at this hour?' it was close to 9pm. 'sure, come over. else lemme know and i can get the turtle to your place for a while'.'umm... errr.. no. we consider a turtle a bad omen. my mum says we aren't supposed to get it inside our house'...'ok, come over then'.

i didn't think of it much then. nor do i think of it much now. next time i talked to mum, i asked her this. and she gave me a piece of her mind. such relief! granny had a pet cat that kinda behaved weird after she passed away, making us all so uncomfy. grompa had cattle. the sibling always brought home abandoned puppies, nursed them to health, and then cried loads when someone'd steal them. he's still big time into animals. mum has her cows regularly visiting for a bite. and dad baby-sits those red-birds' nestlings in our garden, to keep the cats at bay. tinnu surely is in good hands. and far from being a bad omen, tinnu's been a joy! there are times when i resent cleaning up after him, but i do it mechanically because he's a responsibility. and compared to a dog or a cat or any other pet, tinnu's much less demanding. much less stinkier than bunnies and birds... all he needs is some food and a shoulder to climb on... an ocassional anti-bacterial, and he's good.

5-5-10

tinnu's been a darling, except for that fateful day when he gobbled the lone guppie. that was mean, especially when the guppie was so trusting of him, always staying within close range and out of reach. that was sad... what was shocking was the way tinnu was choking and gasping for breath. gave me quite a scare. i didn't see the chase-n-gobble of the guppie, but when i saw tinnu he was gasping for breath as if he'd just finished the marathon. so i put him on the floor and left him alone. he was alright after a while and that was when dad noticed the guppie was missing. all my concern for tinnu was replaced with disgust.. but then, i am equally guilty since i put them together in the first place.

other than that incident, he's been good and playful and has kept dad busy and entertained. dad's been over-feeding him. tinnu's still living in the smaller tank. it's kinda cold in the mornings, so when i take him out of his tank in the mornings, i wrap him up in a warm cloth and he surprisingly stays that way for hours on end, burying himself some more, emerging only when it turns warm outside. it's kinda nice in a way. dad and i settle for some tea, and i get to hold the bundled-up tinnu for a while. no scratching with his claws, or struggling to get away. just some peaceful staring at me. at times i see some gratitude in those unbelievably beautiful green eyes. dad laughs at the way i indulge tinnu, but then he's one sweet kid.

next week, when dad goes back to dharwar, tinnu's going back to his bigger tank and i should remember to keep its water warm.

dad and tinnu

dad came last saturday, and immediately complained that tinnu's aqua in the kitchen had a very strong odour. I've had the maid say the same thing, but I ignored her always. I wasn't getting any, so I was really fine with it. With Dad, it's a real problem. So, I moved Tinnu to his smaller aqua and into the bedroom on sunday. I put warm water into the tank, let tinnu walk around on the floor for sometime, and held him feet into the water for a while, so he could adjust to the warth. And slowly let him slide off my hand into the water, expecting him to trash around. instead, the curious thing checked out every inch of the aqua. and didn't mind the new place. in the evening, i was hoping to stay up late and so i covered half the tank with a newspaper. in 15 mins, the newspaper had been pulled into the tank and tinnu was on the floor. oops! next, it was the carpet covering the tank partially. after a while, tinnu managed to get out and was lying on his back when i found him, struggling to get back on his feet. a turtle cannot breathe when he's resting on his back, i.e when he's turned turtle. and thats not a good news. so i quickly put his right, and put him back into the water. that left me with no option but to switch off the lights, as i watched 'ocean's thirteen'. also, i slept on the floor, beside the watertank last night. it's much cooler there, than the bed that tends to get very warm and uncomfy. this way, i'd know if tinnu manages to get out of his aqua again. he'd land on my head!

this morning, i picked tinnu from the floor and was carrying him around on my shoulder. i showed dad how to kiss tinnu. and dad came to tinnu asking for a kiss and expecting tinnu to retreat in fear. the kiddo actually stretched out his neck and checked dad's cheek, much to dad's amazement! in fact, dad retreated saying 'he's so cold'. he could also feel the steady stream of cold air that comes out of tinnu's tiny nostrils.

some more...

how tinsu sleeps

this is how tinnu sleeps on most days... in the lower shelf... either against the walls. or all by himself with his legs and head pulled deep into his shell... and ocassionally either moving to rest on the upper shelf(and back to the  lower one after a while) or stretching himself all out, look at his magnificient neck, putting only his nose out, while his eyes are still closed. check his closed eyes in the first picture. he sometimes sleeps on the makeshift ramp that i have temperorily put into his tank.

earlier fav. spots to doze off

in the earlier days, tinnu would always clamber into the newspaper/book shelf that was his prev. tank... and doze off for what seemed like hours.. else find a shoe or a sock to rest on.

one curious turtle

 scrambles to climb into my lap.. can't make it.. goes around... still can't make it. gets a helping hand... peeks at the monitor.. types a series of j's... gets bored... slides down onto the pillow that breaks his big slide down.. and walks away!

24 march 2010

tinnu and i have been having a good time. last weekend, i put him in half a bucket of water with betadine dissolved in it. his skin had been shedding again. so. the skin seems much better now. the other day, when i was taking my washed clothes upstairs to put them out to dry, i put tinnu in the bucket too and put him in the sun for a while. he rushed to some shade. looks like those 5 mins in the sun got him shedding. gotto remember this.

in the mornings, i am too busy to spend time with him though he tries to get on my feet when i put him out of water. so in the evenings, when i settle down on the kitchen floor with my cuppa chai and mobile and the newspaper, tinnu has all my attention. i put a rag on my legs, since he slips otherwise, and in the process leaving my legs covered in scratches. and tinnu then climbs upto my shoulder, mostly unaided, and sits there looking around. these are also the times when he lets me hold him without hissing or clawing madly or peeing. though i still can't figure out whats with him and the shoulder. he's scratching my neck bad too. gawd! those awful claws he's got. looks like A, tinnu's previous keeper, tried to trim his nails/claws once, and they bled.

there's so much i want to write about tinnu. for now, i can only say he holds my heart in his hands - those four legs with awful claws. heehaa. so far, he's been eating well. tinnu's one curious critter... he rushes to see  what's happening when i use the fishnet to fish out stuff.. he swims around and follows the fishnet. and i think tinnu likes the green colour. he's taken a liking to the green shelf i have temperorily placed in his tank. unfortunately for me, he sleeps and deposits his stuff there and it's quite cumbersome for me to clean the shelf after him.

weekend three

dad arrived and took up taking care of tinnu. feeding him twice a day, putting him out of water and onto the floor for 30mins twice a day. i helped clean the tank. i took out the water with a mug into buckets, and bent over the tank to scrub it clean and dry. and while at it, i had this weird burning in my eyes. the next day i developed a fever and it was very obviously because of the symptoms when cleaning the fish tank. the next week, dad cleaned it while i was away and fell sick too. nise cured us alright.

the second time, i cleaned the tank the burning sensation in my eyes recurred, but was quite mild and i popped a nise before the fever could develop. hence, no fever. the consecutive times, there was no fever and the burning decreased.

later on, the aqua was moved from the bedroom to the kitchen, because of friends and their kids arriving to see the turtle, and looking around the room instead. that was kinda irritating. now, they get to tresspass only into the kitchen, which again does not suit me very well. but the hall gets very little or no sunlight and i can't move tinnu there. now the tank sits on the kitchen platform beside the window, and next to the sink/wash-basin. comfy for tinnu to bask, and comfy for me to change the tank's water.