Frankie in the Press

Frankie's press coverage

Not A Morning Turtle

Generally, I am a morning person - under certain conditions. First, I need to wake up when I naturally wake up. Nothing sudden. If given the opportunity to wake up without alarms, etc. I am usually in a great mood. Either the first or second thing I do after waking is head down to the gecko room to water all the geckos. Its just routine.

Having all the turtles in for the winter makes going to the gecko room a real treat. Seeing them brings a moment of genuine joy to me. I believe that genuine joy can be elusive when one is real honest - at least in my life. But seeing my turtles is very joyous.

Even grumpy Frankie. Sometimes when I get downstairs, he is already awake. He has turned face out of his box and looks at me as I enter the room. But, a lot of the time when I enter he is still deep in his box, face inward. Usually he will hear me and turn around. When he does he just looks plain grumpy. When I say "hello" he retracts his head slightly and blinks almost as if to say "not so loud" sorta like someone who has had too much to drink the night before. He is just not ready to come out of that box. He will sit there until he is good and ready (awake) before he steps forward. This is usually around 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Box turtles are not like this at all. They are early risers. This seems to be a natural behavior. They are up and ready for food and water way before I get in the door. They must wake up at the first sign of morning light. Maybe I should consider feeding them first thing in the morning when I water geckos. They would probably like this. Now why hadn't I thought of this until just now?

In an hour or so I will be back downstairs to feed geckos. Frankie will finally be his regular self ready to head outside for sunshine, grazing and some serious walking.

A Day of Shopping

Frankie and I went shopping Sunday afternoon. We hit the pet stores soon after lunch to do some serious shopping with our gift certificates from Pet Smart and Pet Co. Of course, these are Frankie's favorite places to shop.

Frankie really enjoys exploring Pet Co (I-280 location). The bright interior, low shelving and white floor with red and blue specks really seem to make his walkabouts fun and easy. He nearly walked the entire store, or would it be more accurate to say explored the whole store. Since I have not shopped this store much it gave me time to get to look at all the products. I picked out some things for the cats, for Greg and for Frankie. Frankie got some Orchard Grass which he is still learning to eat.

Frankie met quite a few people. Employees remembered him from their costume contest and his previous visits. Young people in the store enjoyed him and lots of questions were answered. Cell phones with cameras were everywhere.

Next, we went to our regular stop, Pet Smart on I-280. Frankie navigates this store with some difficulty and it takes him some time to get to the cat area where I needed to pick up some things. Once in the cat area, the small bits of cat food kept Frankie busy and soon he was following a trail of food to the other side of the store. He met with some of his favorite store employees who always fuss over him. Shoppers are amazed and more questions are answered.

Getting out of Pet Smart proved difficult and only a trail of treats could get him to go to the front of the store so we could check out. Once we finally got through the check stand I put Frankie on top of the cat food and cat litter and off to the parking lot we went (not sure if Frankie felt very dignified on top of the cat stuff). Once at the car, we were greeted with a whole troop of folks fussed over Frankie.

I think that if Frankie was capable of signing autographs, people would take them.

When Frankie got home, he was simply exhausted and went straight to bed.

I didn't know it was possible to tire him out.