Texaco the Laughing Turtle
 

For those who have never seen my pet turtle (and that would be the lot of you) may I present to you ... Texaco *

http://cgi.ebay.com/TEXACO-TEST-AUCT...QQcmdZViewItem

He is not actually being sold -- we used him for a test auction.

Yay Texaco. But riddle me this - does he feel used? (I mean you used him in your auction - did he give you explicit permission to use his face online? Imagine the emails he'll now be getting from potential mates, psycho turtles wanting to stalk him and all that.)

I'm the current high bidder.

Texaco looks a bit pissed off there, Tref.

Once I own him, I will calm him down.

Texaco is the grumpiest turtle I have ever seen. (A reflection of his owner?) He spends his whole day under his rock. To feed him I have to knock food his way with a plastic knife, otherwise he ignores it.

But he is family and I love him. Her. Whatever.

Somebody tried to outbid me, but I am determined to save that turtle from his horrible captors.

I'm insulted. How dare you!

Actually Texaco has it quite good. Quite, indeed.

- I clean his bowl twice a week.
- He has all his food swatted into his mouth.
- He is kept at my job so he always has somebody at which to stare.

And I have made progress as well with him/her.
Texaco doesn't shrink into her shell like he used to when I picked her up.
Now he/she just looks at me. In the old days when I sat
him down on the table she would run to anyplace I was not.
Now he comes right to me and once he even lifted his
little paw and scratched my arm to signal that he/she was
ready for his/her bowl.

And I've noticed that Texaco has even picked up a few words, such as "Hello", "Bye" and "Anthropomorphistic". Few people realise that turtles are natural born parrots, just as parrots are also natural born parrots. Though, I am not stupid, I understand this ability in turtles is not intelligence, more than it is the rote memorisation of sounds.

OK, that last part was a lie. Turtles can not actually speak, and I am not sure if they can even recognise people from day to day. But Texaco isn't afraid of me anymore and that is something, I suppose.

I tried to bid for Texaco, in the hopes that he might serve as a tutor to our poor mute Zebra finches, but it seems a certain person who shall otherwise remain nameless has placed a max bid that I, frankly, am too bored to try and surpass. So, our finches shall remain mute, Texaco shall remain cranky, and KB will have some 'splainin to do to Gus Gus when she gets home.

You must not have tried THAT hard - it isn't that high.

You just don't have the same desire as I.

Maybe I should put the birds on E-Bay.

Well some tweedledot named copper eos thinks they can outbid me.

HA!

The bidding is getting up there - currently at $51.00. I gave up.

Hmm, "I gave up" is not in my dictionary, KB.

At least not as one word, though you can find each one individually in sections, I, G & U.

I just got word that our store is closing! Oh woe is Tref!

But please take with you this last photo of my dear friend, Texaco. (Can you spot him in the auction?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/15-ROLLS-OF-YELL...QQcmdZViewItem

Hey, thanks, KB

Here is a clip of a turtle (not unlike our young hero,Texaco, fighting what I believe to be a shark)

http://www.badmovies.org/multimedia/...mvsguiron1.mpg

So was "copper eos" responsible for paying $1,000,001.00 for Texaco?