Currently, in Turtle Land

We've had a fair amount of rain here over the past couple of weeks, and our turtles love it! Our atrium (their habitat) is thriving - like its own little ecosystem out there. Having the turtles out and about has afforded me with some photo ops, so that's what I'm sharing today.

Here's little Casper, coming out to greet me:





I've been coming home during my lunch hours to let Lucky inside for the afternoon and out of the Arizona heat {but that is coming to an end soon because fall is right around the corner!!!}. During the 30 minutes that I'm home, I've been tending to the atrium - watering the plants and entertaining our baby box turtle, Casper.

She totally digs the water hose! Check out this video I shot of her, running to play in the water - and eating a bug on the way:

So cool, right?

A couple of weeks ago we noticed a teeny-tiny lizard sunning himself on a rock in the atrium. He must have come through an opening at the top and either decided to stay or couldn't figure out an escape route. He has more than doubled in size since he came to stay! Anyway, he usually dashes into hiding when we enter the atrium, but the other day he sat still and allowed me to photograph him.

Doug has named him Leroy which adds a little more personality to him, causing me to worry. I have learned that box turtles eat lizards. Hide, Leroy! Hide!!!

And then, there's Rexy boy...

Rex is a bit more elusive than Casper and not nearly as curious. He did sit still for me last night, and I was happy to grab a photo of him to include in this post. Let's see, he's about 5 years old and Cas is about 2 now. We're hoping they'll mate one day, but according to the Internet it will be a few years before Cas starts producing eggs. So we patiently wait...

 

And here's one more video, of Cas just being cute:

Kind of makes you want a pet turtle, doesn't it?

♥