Bullseye the turtle finds a loving home

by Dave DeMars

news@thenewsleaders.com

Sometimes animals in the wild need a helping hand to survive life in the big city. That was the case of Bullseye the turtle. Bullseye is one of those lucky turtles who managed to survive in the wild until a nice young boy and girl adopted him as their own.

Bullseye, you see, was only the size of a 50-cent piece when he was found struggling along a jogging path. He might have been a meal for some raccoon, snake, goose or skunk; he might have been squashed flat by a runner out for a jog or some Pokemon Go enthusiast, were it not for his two protectors, Cody Will-Robinson, 7, and his sister Marina Will-Robinson, 9.

“We found him on the walking path,” Cody said. “We were just walking on the path, and I happened to see orange. At first I thought it was a rock, and then I saw the orange on the bottom of him, so I picked it up, and I saw the hole where his head goes out, and I was like, ‘Is this a turtle?'”

Big sister Marina assured him it was indeed a turtle. At first she says she was a little afraid of him even though Bullseye never was mean to her.

“He was just weird ’cause we’ve never had a turtle before,” Marina said.

Animals are common around the Will-Robinson household. April Will-Robinson, the children’s mother, had a rabbit once, she confided.

“We have two cats and a dog, and we also had a fish, but we never had a turtle before,” Marina said.

Because he is a very young turtle and has been cared for by two very responsible young persons, Bullseye is very active. Bullseye was in constant motion swimming from one end of his glass fish tank to the other. Is he always so energetic, it was asked?

“Only when he’s hungry,” Cody said.

Marina said the turtle is almost always hungry.

“We feed him dried-up worms we buy at Walmart,” Marina said.

Bullseye has been with the Will-Robinsons for almost three months now, and he is no longer the pipsqueak 50-cent piece he was when Cody and Marina found him. He has grown and is nearly the size of Cody’s hand.

Cody is his chief caretaker. The turtle tank, with its raised rock and warm light, occupy a spot near Cody’s bed. While Bullseye is a cute pet to look at and observe from a distance, Marina says she doesn’t really like to play with him, preferring her cat, Miko, instead.

Cody, on the other hand, likes to play with Bullseye. He teases the turtle by shaking the bottle of freeze-dried meal worms in front of the glass tank. The turtle swims rapidly toward the bottle. Cody moves the bottle to the other hand, and Bullseye quickly reverses course and chases the bottle. Occasionally, Cody takes Bullseye from his tank, puts him on the floor in his room and gives him a view of the larger world. Cody lays down next to the turtle, so they are eye to eye, so to speak.

The turtle is well cared for, and both Cody and Marina have learned a bit about turtles and tortoises.

“Tortoises drown when they are in water, and turtles don’t. This is a painted turtle,” Cody said. “Mom went on line and looked at it.”

At first they kept him in a rubber container with some rocks in it. They didn’t know turtles are cold-blooded like snakes and lizards. Once they found out, they moved Bullseye to his watery aquarium with its big warming rock and a bright heat lamp.

“Turtles like to bask,” Marina said. “Turtles like the warmth and the light.”

“And he actually knows when it’s time to go to bed, and then he goes in the corner back there,” Cody said indicating a small structure that provides some shelter. “He just lays there.”

Cody said Bulleye usually sleeps from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

With Bullseye’s popularity, would the Will-Robinsons ever get a second turtle to keep Bullseye company?

“No,” Cody said. “My dad doesn’t want to have two turtles because the cage will get full of poop every day.”