Dear Members and Friends: Our SPRING meeting will be held on Saturday, April 22, at the Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive, Sacramento, CA 95822 from 5 until we are all talked out. Since most of you do not like the evening meetings, I would like you to arrive around 3-3:30 or so and we can meet at the gazebo in the park next to the library (if it is not taken) and you can bring your pets if you like so we can all enjoy seeing them, etc. and then at 5 we can go into the meeting room and have cake and discuss the upcoming meetings and plan a Turtlerama date and whatever you want to talk about. (Pets are not allowed on the floor in the library so please keep them in a box that does not leak......) We will also celebrate the club's 36th anniversary. How do you like that? And we keep gaining more and more members! Those who need to leave early may do so at any time. How does this sound to everybody? I'm trying to please one and all!!

The libraries are witholding their meeting rooms on Saturdays until 5 pm for their own activities and that is the reason we can no longer have afternoon meetings. Nobody can! We are not being singled out!! The kitchen at Belle Cooledge is still not available.......

We can have our plant exchange, always fun to pick up something you have always wanted......and also donate your excess plants and cuttings, etc.

Our Winter meeting went well at Round Table Pizza. It was not too crowded and we had a great time. As always, all I ate was one slim piece of the Chicken Garlic pizza which is my favorite......and nothing else! I'll bring and hide my own lunch next time. I can't believe I didn't get even a crumb of the delicious cinnamon twists!! I do need a body guard again to make sure I get a little bit of food? I had to go to Jack in the Box afterwards for a meal! I think the person who is eating most of the food is the same one who cut up the chocolate cake at our 27th club meeting with a knife they must have smuggled in and then during the meeting, doled out the Anniversary cake to the people sitting in the back of the room. There were two small pieces left for the 25 people up front. ???? WHO???

SEE YOU BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE MEETING*

It is FINALLY Spring again after an extremely wet winter with a broken Oroville dam adding to the nightmare of having a little TOO much rain. We also had some pretty crazy winds with trees blowing over and doing a lot of damage. I hope none of you sustained any damage or injuries. And now, it is time to clean up your yard because a lot of things happened over the winter. Little rocks have come up which your tortoises will want to eat and all sorts of debris have blown into your yard. Go through the yard for potential hazards. Clean up pet hair (human hair too) You might have teens who like to dry their hair outdoors now that the weather is better. Remove any trace of plastic bags, baggie ties, pins, needles and anything that can look like food to your tortoises. It's an ongoing job, isn't it? Watch for the turtles and tortoises also getting into situations they cannot free themselves from. More than once I have seen one hanging by a claw on the little fence I have surrounding their enclosure because they just knew life would be much better on the other side. Some never made it because I was not home to see them hanging - Heartbreaking! SO BE ALERT! Try to imagine dangerous situation before they actually happen. Block those spaces under the fence so they won't be tempted to escape!! If they can see out, you can be sure they will manage to dig out. On the other hand, a neighbors dog might be tempted to dig into your yard and harm your pets.

 

*Giovanni's, the pizza parlor down the street from the library, has renovated the restaurant and if anyone wants to go there and share a pizza after the meeting, that would be very nice. It's all about eating! I don't plan on bringing a large cake since a lot of you will head home before we actually go into the library room at 5. Of course, we could bring one in if you prefer more privacy.

AT THE BUNKER

In the last newsletter I mentioned perhaps having someone come over to help now and then? The Bunker is growing old, always overcrowded, always too much to do, and I could use a friend to drop by and help clean the ponds and do some weeding and sprucing up. Things I just don't have time for due to the amount of turtles and tortoises here which include mine and everyone else's!! I did have helpers years ago. But one brought a family along and one of the children walked into my screened patio room and saw a dollhouse we had just completed for a family member and immediately broke off the front porch among other things. Another time a mother and son came by to help and I asked them to please pull the tall weeds that were growing near the back fence. They did a great job, however, they did a little too much and opened up the area UNDER the fence so all of the box turtles who hang out back there had easy access to the neighbors yard. So if anyone would enjoy being here and helping now and then, let me know. It will be a terrific learning experience, I promise you. There are lots of laughs and also tragedies especially if we are 'raided' during the night. I might even buy you lunch!!

Meanwhile, I am glad to say goodbye to this very wet and cold winter. I know this is not Boston, but I truly don't remember the winters being this way when we first moved here in 1971. Some of the residents are still in the greenhouse, including Blondie the big leopard and I don't force anyone to come out. When they are ready, when I open the door to feed them, they simply walk out.

I've had very little information about the pond renovations going on at McKinley Park and also Land Park pond. I don't think the work has even started at McKinley which is sad because the ducks and geese are hatching and their normal habitats there are unavailable to them. I guess all of the turtles were removed somehow?? I WISH I had more information. I know this tho, the baby turtles will be hatching any time now and I'm sure some of the turtles went into hibernation before anyone could take them away. And I'm sure they will not be treated kindly by anyone finding them in or around the lake. Nobody is going to stop and say, what should we do with this turtle..........

I don't have any stomach churning wounds to talk about (yet) not everyone is awake and ready to chase me causing me to fall and hurt myself. I'm only concerned because there is a huge overload of big sliders here and I am really not equipped to give them a good home but they seem happy to just sit around the tiny pond doing nothing all day. Maybe I shouldn't feel bad? These have come in from Animal Control and I do expect more as the weather warms. There was a movie years ago called Who Will Love My Children.............and now I ask you, 'who will love my turtles' altho they are not MINE, they are just here because that's the way it has to be! I think my first newsletter mentioned them and when all is said and done, my last newsletter will say the same!! Will YOU love my children???

I am sure a lot of you know how difficult it is to type when a huge cat is lying on your hands purring his brains out. My wrists are so tired and a little punctured!! I'm going to end this and just rubber stamp the rest!! Thanks everyone for hanging in there with me as our turtle journey continues......

I love every one of you more than you'll ever know. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. And to our Fabulous Facebook people, you guys are the best!