“Good morning, Squeaks,” said Momanita as she tugged the blue cover off my rolly cage. “It’s a late start today because of an early errand.”
“Late starts are my favorite starts.”
To other hootmans this sounded like squeals and whistles, but not to Momanita. She MOSTLY understood cockatiel speak. I MOSTLY understood hootman talk.
“Early morning grocery shopping took longer than I thought.”
“Did you pick up Cheerios?”
I ate the last Cheerios yesterday. I hated when there were no Cheerios.
Momanita unpacked eggs and milk into the refrigerator. She shook a familiar yellow box.
“I picked up Cheerios AND a turtle,” she said.
“Turtle! They sell turtles at the grocery store?”
I hoped the turtle wasn’t in the Cheerio box. He might eat them all.
“There are wetlands on either side of the road. A turtle crawled onto the road to cross from one to the other. I stopped my car and helped him on his way. I didn’t want a car to crush him.”
“I’m happy that he’s in the swamp.”
I was even happier he wasn’t in the Cheerios’ box.
“When I approached, he defended himself by tucking his legs and head into his shell,” said Momanita. “I carried him across the road where he was headed.”
Momanita put away the folded grocery bags.
“I wonder what kind of turtle I saved,” said Momanita. “Let’s find out.”
When Momanita wondered, she thought of questions.
When she thought of questions, she looked for answers.
When she looked for answers, she needed my help.
“I’ll bring the Cheerios.” She slipped a handful into her pocket.
I climbed out of my rolly cage into my writing nest. Momanita climbed the stairs to HER writing nest. She scooted her chair to the computer and tapped the keyboard. I perched on top the writing nest. I munched on the delicious oat circles while she read.
Not A Big Deal
“There are 17 types of turtles that live in Illinois,” reported Momanita. “We’ll use the process of elimination to figure out which one I saw.”
The only thing I eliminated, was the heap of Cheerios in Momanita’s pocket. Who cared about turtles?
“Since this fellow was on the smaller size, it wasn’t a common or alligator snapping turtle. Snapping turtles grow 15–19 inches and live 30-50 years depending upon the species. They have powerful jaws and can chop a broom handle in half. They eat plants and animals. The alligator snapper has a fleshy mouth part that looks like a worm. He opens his mouth and wiggles it to lure in fish. Once they near, he snaps them up for a meal.”
I opened my mouth wide and wiggled my tongue for more Cheerios. It worked. The snapper tricked a minnow. I tricked Momanita.
Not A Stinker
“This morning’s turtle was definitely NOT an eastern musk turtle,” said Momanita. “The musk turtle releases such an awful smell from his scent glands when he’s bothered, that he’s called a stinkpot!”
“I like my nickname better. Thanks for calling me ‘Squeaky Pie’ instead of ‘Stinky Pie.’”
“The stinkpot climbs trees that are leaning over the water. Sometimes so high that they drop into canoes that paddle underneath.”
A turtle that climbed trees and surprised canoeists? Sometimes I climbed to the top of my writing nest and jumped onto Momanita’s shoulder to surprise her.
Shell Game
“The shape, color, and texture of a turtle’s shell helps with identification,” said Momanita.
“I can identify Cheerios by their round shape and Wheat Chex are square. Both of them are tasty.”
“Box turtles have big, domed shells. If the shell is ridged, then it’s a map turtle, and a softshell turtle’s shell is leathery and smooth,” said Momanita. “The turtle I found had an olive-colored shell with a red edge.”
“Birds’ feathers are different colors and shapes, too.”
“Here it is!” said Momanita pointing to a photo on her laptop. “It’s a painted turtle!”
I climbed down from my writing nest and scooted onto the desk for a closer look. The painted turtle was a handsome fellow, not as handsome as a cockatiel, but still good looking.
“We should write about the different types of Illinois turtles,” said Momanita.
I thought about the snapper fooling a fish and me fooling Momanita.
I thought about the musk turtle climbing trees and me climbing my writing nest.
I thought about turtles’ different shells and birds’ different feathers.
“We should write about how the more you learn about others, the more you learn how you’re alike.”
To other hootmans this sounded like squeals and whistles, but not to Momanita. She MOSTLY understood cockatiel speak. I MOSTLY understood hootman talk.
Check out Momanita’s book OPERATION HOPPER.
Momanita and I read about different type of turtles,. You might want to read about them, too.
Anita Borgo 