day one, two and three

tinnu, the red-eared slider, came home with me on 16th Dec 2009, totally unplanned. A colleague brought his pet 2 year old turtle to the workplace to give it away to somebody else. And that somebody else didn't turn up that day. and i offered to take tinnu up without a thought. it was a busy day at work, and i wasn't thinking much.

tinnu came in a shoebox that had a vent for air, where he rested his pretty head. the entire evening, he kept hissing. the colleague told me a turtle hisses when he's mad/angry. google later told me that a turtle hisses when he's scared. when threatened, a turtle makes a quick retreat into his shell thereby pushing the air outta his lungs in a huge hurry... all this air rushing out makes the hissing sound. and going by the fact that they can live underwater without breathing for very long, that's plenty of air inside a turtle's lungs.

he also explained how to take care of tinnu, and that was when i got nervous... that evening, as instructed, i put him in half a bucket of luke warm water.. tinnu clawed at the sides of the bucket all night and the two of us didn't get a wink of sleep. he was still clawing the next morning. kinda got me damn worried.

at the workplace, the colleague told me he needs something to hang on to when he puts his head out of water to breathe. why didn't i think of this! on evening two, i put a tall jar weighed down with stones, into the bucket. though it took away a lot of space, tinnu finally relaxed, stopped clawing and put his forelegs on the jar. he was still quite cramped in the bucket. but i was having a terrible time at work and could not afford hunting for an aquarium for him. on day two, sabari and i went to gulmarg aquarium at koramangala for a fishtank and turtle food and were stumped to know that fishtanks costed in thousands - all of them more than 10k. the colleague, lets call him A, said it would cost rs.600...  hence, we gave the fishtank a miss and bought the turtle food. i was planning to enquire at a dozen other aquariums... tinnu and i had to wait for the weekend. it was a long and a painful wait. the poor turtle had to make do in a cramped bucket and i was on my nerves edge hoping he would survive till i found a nice tank for him.

tinnu ate and pooped in the bucket and then gave the water a good stir with all his fours. so every now and then the water would turn brown. and that's when i had to drain the water with tinnu still inside, and replace it with lukewarm water. that was like multiple times each day! i was only glad that he was eating well, never mind the fact that he was a pooping machine.