That Time I (Became A Turtle Mommy)

Welcome back friends for my third That Time I post!

This week I'm talking about that time I became a mom...a turtle mom that is.

It was Christmas break, 2011.
I honestly don't remember quite why we did it, but Dillon and I decided we were ready to be pet parents. However, since Dillon is away at the academy, I would be the one to keep said pet.
Even though I would love to have a puppy or kitten, we decided it wasn't the right time. I was not ready to throw down all my money on a pet deposit at my house, and with school and work, I'm away from home most of the day, so I would have felt so bad leaving new pet baby at home by itself all the time.

And then we decided to get a turtle! Turtles are my favorite animal. I honestly think they are the coolest. So we went to PetSmart (or is it PetsMart??) and Petco, but they only had big turtles. There is actually a law, and it's illegal to sell them in big chain stores like that until they are a certain size.
But I was determined to get a little baby turtle. So we looked online...and after researching all the different kinds of turtles, we finally decided to get a yellow bellied slider turtle baby.

And then we "ordered" him...and he came to us all the way from Florida.
After we already hit submit on our new turtle baby, we found bad reviews of the place, saying that when the turtle arrived at their door, it was dead.
This TERRIFIED me.
The next day I was pacing around Dillon's house so much, I was so scared the box would come and my turtle would be dead.
So when the UPS guy FINALLY came I was so nervous...the stupid guy was juggling the box around. Like HELLO! I'm pretty sure it said live animal or handle with care or something...jerk.

But when we opened the container, there was my new turtle baby MOVING around! I was so happy, I'm pretty sure I had tears in my eyes.

And that was the day I became a turtle mommy to the most adorable turtle baby, and we named him Tuck. Tuck the Turtle...that's original, right?? Look how teeny tiny he was! Melts my heart.

The "family picture" I sent Dillon for his recognition (an academy thing that I may or may not talk about at a future time).

He LOVED to climb up on his leaves, it was so darn cute. In fact, he still does it...

I don't think he realizes he's just a little too big to do that now.

I sent this to Dillon on his birthday. Tuck misses him because his turtle daddy is the one who actually buys him yummy things like fish and crickets (I refuse...the one time I bought him a couple fish, I saw him eat one, which was horrifying, and then he decided to make friends with the other one and I ended up having to flush it down the toilet).

I need to sign him up for turtle modeling.

So while everyone else in blog land is loving up on their dogs, here I am loving up on my turtle baby who isn't a baby anymore and who likes to try to bite me when I take him out of his tank, and also likes to jump off my bed and either land upside down or crawl into my closet.

Don't forget to check out Alex's That Time I post! We have had some people express interest in making this a link-up. Let us know what you think, and if you would join in!
Hayley already has, so go check out her post, too!

Happy Hump Day!