Tippy Turtle

Your Monday Shoot: Things You Have Other People Probably Don't :

   Tough call...

   I could focus on my blow gun:

 

   Or I could get into my more up-close weaponry:

  

   Which I'm pretty sure is illegal:

 

   So I decided to show off my musk turtle, which is NOT an endangered species in Massachusetts. He was a gift from Monponsett resident Johnny V.  I got my dog from some girl named Tornado:

   His (I think he's a him... musk turtles are fairly hard to identify, gender wise, for a non-professional) name's Tippy, and he's named after a SNL skit... I've had him since he was the size of a dime. He's about the size of a dinner roll, and will be huge if he breaks 6 inches.

 

   He spends 90% of his time underwater, and has a catfish (named Hunter) to hang around with. When the catfish dies, Tippy (who, in the wild, subsists primarily on carrion) will eat his best friend without a moment's thought. He's already eaten 4 Siamese Fighting Fish.

   The catfish is as homely as a mud fence, but he keeps the tank amazingly clean. These pictures were taken between Fighting Fish 3 and Fighting Fish 4, so it's Strictly Reptile today.

   Tippy and Catfish are united by their hatred of humans. I've raised Tippy almost from the egg, and he'd bite me in an instant if I tried to hold him.

   I do know how to cook turtles, although musk turtles have a defense mechanism (skunk-like scent glands in his urinary tract) that makes the prospect less than appetizing.

   Unless I accidentally kill him, Tippy could easily out-live me. The oldest musk turtle in captivity lived past 50, although people probably weren't smoking a lot of marijuana around him.

   Anyhow, that's Tippy. I also have a dog, but I got to show her off while I was doing some work for my good friend Pastor Mike at the Trinity Curch In Covington, and it cost me several steaks. Tippy just wants to constantly have a fish in the tank with him as he does God's work.

   He's beautifully ugly, and I  love the lil' SOB.