The Little Turtle

My dad has quite a few hobbies; he likes growing vegetables and raising small animals, and we happen to have a small garden at home. We used to keep a dog, but in high school I was too busy, coming home only about half a day per week, and as the main person responsible for the dog I brought it up, but there was no time to care for it, and the dog was too noisy and bothered the upstairs neighbors, so it ended up being given away.

So my dad chose an animal that’s relatively easy to raise: turtles. It’s funny; all our turtles were given by others. The big one is said to be about 10 years old. A quick check showed it’s a very ordinary flower turtle, a kind of edible turtle.

I was still sleeping in the morning, and he hurriedly grabbed a small bag again, inside were two more little turtles—the two little guys next to it, small and quite cute.

I’ve finally learned what it means that a newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger; this old turtle is really sharp. As soon as someone approaches, it immediately tucks its head in and never sticks it out.

These two little ones are probably only a few days old; compared to the old one, they’re really quite dumb. I tap their shells; they don’t move at all, and even when I touch their heads with a cotton swab, they stand straight and unmoved, really fearless.

Acrobatic Turtle

In the afternoon my dad put these turtles in a foam box. The big turtle truly amazed me. It’s been trying to escape, scratching at the foam box with its feet; the sound is creepy and squeaky (I really don’t like the sound of squeezing a foam box; it’s very irritating).

I went out to see what was going on, and found that the big turtle was actually at the top, about to flip down. I immediately grabbed my phone to take the last photo. The next second was the scene of the incident.

You can see the big turtle is already hanging in midair; the next second that shell hit the ground with a very loud thud, ha ha ha ha ha ha. Not bad; loud means a good shell.

Then it was on its back; I was thinking, would a turtle that’s always on its back die like this, and just as I was about to lend a hand, it started moving on its own. It gradually leaned its body toward the edge of the box, using all its strength to flip over.

I knew this old turtle was awesome—clever, indeed. The next second it really did flip it over; a snap, and I was stunned again.

I was about to pull out my phone to film the moment it flipped over, but it moved so fast that I only caught another rear view, sob sob. Truly, the old turtle has eaten more salt than the little turtles have walked, ha ha ha ha ha.