What goes around, comes around

With a heavy heart, I am writing to say that one of my terrapins is dying. When I was in Secondary 2, a friend gave me two tiny terrapins for my 14th birthday. I named them Michaelangelo and Donatello after my favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I wanted Michaelangelo to be my boyfriend because he likes pizza and shouts "cowabunga". My sister got two terrapins for her birthday and there were four in the Toe household - our very first pets! Hers were named Leonardo and Raphael. Sadly, Leonardo didn't live for long and I think my father flushed him down the toilet when we were at school.

I used to come home from school and played with the little fellas. How does one play with heroes in a hard shell, one might ask. I would take them out of their plastic house and put them in a basin and put them in various locations e.g. the porch, the garden, the balcony, the backyard. They liked the change of scenery. Once, I left them in the garden overnight and we almost lost one. We combed the entire garden and found him in the bushes. I also took them for walks around the backyard and rolled on the floor with them.

Fast forward 23 years. Both my sister and I have moved out of the Toe house and my mother has been dutifully looking after the three TMNT. We believe that our not-so-little fellas represent longevity. My mother feeds them well - shrimp, crab and fish. They go crazy when she gives them dried shrimp, scampering around their house. When my sister and I go back for meals, we'd always say hello to them. Tonight, Mum told us that one of them is unwell. Over the years, we've forgotten which terrapin is which. He does look very poorly indeed. He has bloated feet. My aunt claimed that his kidneys have failed. (Do terrapins have kidneys??) Mum started crying and I badgered my sister to fix him. My dad had to calmly tell us that my sister treats humans, not animals.

The little fella will be going to the vet tomorrow. I hope he pulls through. If not, he has our blessings to be put to sleep. It was a very surreal moment - my family, with my grandmother and aunt, deciding what to do with our pet. For the first time, we agreed on the same thing - to euthanise him if need be and cremate him. It's the animals that brings us together.