Turtlesitting

This is Kwen.

Ken Dry and Stephanie Kwan (Ken + Kwan = Kwen) brought us their little pet turtle while they are away for the holidays. Kwen is also a Red-Ear Slider, but is about one third the size of ours.

Near as i can tell, Kwen only has two hobbies: basking with his little flippers tucked away, and fleeing in terror whenever you come near. We were a little worried that our turtles would just eat him, but they appear to be pals now. Kwen is also learning to swim in a big tank, and the early prognosis is, he likes it.

Along with Kwen came an assortment of fishes, most of which would probably be eaten within hours. However, there was one fish in particular that intrigued us, for she was pregnant.

The turtles were chasing her pretty aggressively. She was doing a good job of evading, but we knew she couldn't keep it up forever. I scooped her up in a pitcher, tossed in some rocks to recreate her natural environment, and let her relax.

Not more than 10 minutes later, she gave birth to 12 babies. Therese and i got there in time to watch the last one pop out.

Cute! Then she started eating them. Not cute. She went back into the tank so the babies could grow into big, beautiful, adult fish, which will be fed to our turtles eventually.

And no pet update would be complete without checking in on Muse. Let's see what she's been up to!

Here, she's knocked all the plants off the ledge to make a new lounge area for herself.

And she's discovered she can appear larger to predators by using a reflection to double her size.

And she's learned to enjoy the simple things in life. Her two favorite toys right now are this little piece of plastic trash that we keep trying to throw away and these paper bags we use for recycling. Although she also loves the laser pointer Ken left with us.

And sometimes, when she's in the perfect mood... she might just show you a little affection.

~Kev