Dear Members and Friends: Our FALL meeting will be held on Saturday, October 17th, at the Robbie Waters Library, 7335 Gloria Drive, 95831 (it's also on Havenside), and we have the room from 4 pm until whenever we are finished. Father Dimitri has kindly accepted my invitation to do the pre-hibernation checkups once again so feel free to bring your turtle or tortoise for him to look at and tell you "yes", "no" or "maybe"??? Please keep your pet in a box and off of the floor for sanitary reasons and please do not carry it around the room because accidents DO happen!! It is also our POT-LUCK meeting so feel free to bring lots of food to share. If I remember correctly, there was quite a delicious array of food brought in last Fall. Sharon, your meatballs were spectacular!!! There will be lots of plants out front, many of which were leftover from the TURTLERAMA. I've babied them along since then and hope they all find new homes and yards to thrive in. Thanks for all of your plant donations! Hoping you can also bring some treasures for the raffle!! The TURTLERAMA was such a huge success and we have been invited to have it in front of INCREDIBLE PETS again next year!! I've picked AUGUST 13thas the day. I believe it is the weekend before school starts so there should not be any problems with other activities that day. Thank you all for your participation this year. I was very surprised to see so many of you there displaying your pets!! The summer meeting was not too crowded and nobody seemed to want to pay any attention to what I had to say and I figured the Turtlerama would not be as good as in past years but you all came through and were there to show off your pets, and even sell a few but mostly give out good information to the public who are at the mercy of the Internet's very misleading information about caring for turtles and tortoises. It was such a wonderful day, not too hot, the shade was just right and the crowd was overwhelming!! Thanks to the employees of Incredible Pets for allowing us to use their sidewalk; a few parking spots; and their bathroom and get water for our pools and plants, etc. from their pet bathing area inside of the store. IT WAS APPRECIATED. I'll give a full list of our members who were there, exhibiting and helping, on the copy of this newsletter that will be on our website in a few days. But I will say a big THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL. THAT WAS SOME TURNOUT!! Meanwhile, a lot of you are wishing we could go back to having Saturday afternoon meetings. I hear you and went to the Parkside Church (which is close to Belle Cooledge) and asked about using their lovely meeting room (with a small stage!!) for our meetings and they seemed to be leaning towards saying yes to our seasonal meetings next year, so sit tight and I will let you know ASAP how that works out. Of course if you'd rather stay where we are, that is ok too. Just let me know - we can discuss this at the meeting which leads me to say: SEE YOU AT THE OCTOBER 17TH MEETING!! FALL HINTS: Look for baby box turtles and even tortoises in the yard, especially after a gentle rain. Jim Corbett and I were sitting in my yard recently discussing our favorite topic when a baby box turtle strolled out in front of us. We jumped up and began looking for more!! And we did find a total of 5. Jim found a nest with emerging hatchlings in the middle of the lawn!!! I know there are more out there ready to come up.. And if a person does not find the baby, a bird will, so - BE ALERT!!! Check the tortoise burrows if you have any to make sure they are secure and won't flood or collapse. We have been spoiled by very little rain the last few years and that could change so try to do what you can to prevent a disaster. Is anyone showing signs of illness? Is the tortoise or turtle light weight? Sluggish is normal at this time of the year but swollen eyelids are not normal. Or any body swelling. I know you all can't come to the meetings so try to do exams yourself and let us know if you see anything suspicious. If you are new to the club, make sure your turtle or tortoise is a species that is supposed to hibernate. Our Facebook page is full of knowledgeable people so don't hesitate to ask. And remember that you don't HAVE to let your pet hibernate. If you are really nervous about it, we'll help you figure out away to keep it awake and healthy all winter with minimum stress. Don't let your guard down regarding raccoons, possums and rats. They are always near......yes, scary...... AT THE BUNKER A few weeks ago, I received an email regarding a California Desert Tortoise which was found near the Bay Area and F&W were being notified about it since the people who found the tortoise believed it to be a CDT. So I asked for a photo since I rarely if ever hear of any desert tortoises being found loose in that area. The photo arrived. Sure enough, it was a fully grown - GREEK - male tortoise. It was decided that the tortoise should live here happily with others just like him. And so, he was delivered by a very very nice lady who loved seeing the other tortoises. The couple named the tortoise Merlin 2 and he was a perfect gentleman in the yard, walking around, sniffing everything and seemed to be quite content in his new surroundings. He found a cozy doghouse to sleep in. The next day, around noon, a lovely young lady arrived to pick up a few box turtles and I thought I would show her the yard and the turtles and tortoises who live here. We rounded the corner to the side yard where the larger tortoises, Blondie and Tarzan, hang out and suddenly we were both staring at this tortoise running towards us, full speed ahead. I thought it was Zappo the Wacko. but it wasn't. He was MUCH FASTER, head held HIGH and he caused us to run as fast as we could to the back porch and up onto the steps in order to get away from Merlin!!!! I had my sneakers on and the other gal was wearing white flip flops but managed to run for her life in them. He definitely was after her feet and not mine. We did not go back outside!! I was very concerned because Merlin was running much faster than Zappo ever did but we did not stop to find out what he would do if he caught up to us. What causes this abnormal behavior in my yard? I don't hear anyone else complaining about tortoises attacking their feet! Yes, sometimes a tortoise will gently nip at painted toenails thinking they are food, but nothing like this aggressive behavior. Zappo will chase anyone and try to bite and then furously mate with their feet. I'm not sure what Merlin 2 would have done but I did buy myself a pair of sturdy ankle boots at Big 5 yesterday and will NEVER go out into my back yard without wearing them because these sneak attacks are causing awful things to happen - TO ME!! But out of this chaos, something long forgotten became clear to me regarding Merlin 2. He has never been with a female tortoise or if he was, he has no memory which is probably why he is chasing them all around the yard which I am happy to see. You've all heard me complaining about my males not interested at all and the girls laying lots of empty eggs.......ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER!!! That must be what is going on here. The males are so used to being around the females that they do not see them as partners so next spring I'll begin experimenting. I will attempt to separate some of the males for a week or two and then put them back into the pen and see if that sparks any interest in the females. I highly encourage any of you who have this problem to try it as well. Thanks a million everyone for making 2015 another great year for the club and for our pets. Have a wonderful Holiday Season and if you can't make it to the Fall meeting, see you sometime in January. Take good care of yourselves!! FOR SALE: Beautiful Redfoot hatchling $75 and baby Eastern box turtles $25 each. Contact Corrine at 707-648-1037 or email turttort16@yahoo.com I do have turtles and tortoises up for adoption very often but very few of you ever follow up on your request so I have no way of knowing if you are still interested. Please fill out the TEAM adoption form and bug bug bug me and when that special pet comes in, I will let you know.