3 Important Life Lessons From Bud the Turtle
Turtles can teach you a lot
Turtles are single-minded when in pursuit of a goal. I’ve had 25 years to observe this phenomenon, and expect to continue these observations for another 15 years. Domesticated turtles have long lives, although calling them “domesticated” might be pushing things a bit. Turtles do what they want to do. They take the stereotypes of cats to the utter limits.
Bud the turtle was rescued as a baby from being run over by a forklift on a loading dock. He’d wandered far from his birth pond and didn’t seem in a hurry to return to it, there being so much of the world to explore. So he found himself in a new home as we were worried that his adventurousness would cut his brave little life very short.
He lived in a well-stocked fish tank for a few days, until the day the kids came running with the news that half of the albino frog was missing. The fish population seemed suspiciously thin, and the turtle too obviously smug, so he was moved to a large dish bin filled with water. This pissed him off. He’s been roaming the floors ever since.
Did I mention he’s a water turtle? Bud is a yellow-bellied slider, a close relative of the better-known red-eared slider. He goes into the water to eat because that’s the only way these turtles can eat, but spends the rest of…
