#missing turtle

PLEASE HELP FIND OUR SON

pictures of him HERE

He’s never tried to climb out before. But I don’t understand how something could have taken him, he has plenty of cover from predators.

Kyle (my brother) rescued some turtles a few months ago. This girl went on vacation to Florida and bought some turtles on a whip. Once she got back, she realized how much work they’d be, so Kyle took them off her hands. He’s always wanted some and since he had a nice job, he knew he could afford to take care of them. They start off the size of quarters and in the time that he’s had them, they’ve grown to the size of the palm of my hand.

He’s got a nice big tank for them, that we actually got from a dairy farm. Its meant to be in the ground, but for the winter, Kyle’s had it propped up in the basement. There was a heat lamp right above a fake log sticking out of the water so they could bask and then a heating rod in the water, so it’d always be the perfect temp. But since its summer and pretty nice out, Kyle decided to bring the whole thing outside.

What he did was he made a wooden frame with mesh wire wrapped around. Basically, it was a big box to go over the whole tank. He didn’t cover the back in wire, but it was okay because it was pressed against the house, so nothing big could get in. But then, of course, something happened...

We didn’t notice right away and that was our problem. Had we, we maybe could have prevented this whole ordeal. But its no ones fault that the side of the tank gave out. Its plastic so it just kind of bent or buckled. This meant that the water went right up to the edge of the tank and a curious turtle could easily climb out. But to truly escape, it had to then walk all the way around the tank, climb over the wooden frame (roughly two inches high), and then somehow get between the house and the frame. We don’t know how it managed all of this, but it did.

They had only been out there a day and a half when we noticed the missing turtle. It couldn’t have gotten too far, but even with all four of us looking, we coudln’t find a thing. We’re glad that there hasn’t been any sign of its death and we still have hope. Its just slowly fading. If we don’t find it before the weekend ends, we’ll probably never find it. I think the saddest part is that it doesn’t even know its in danger. That it would have had a long, happy and maybe even fat life had it not been so curious.