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Frankie

Frankie

May 16, 2008

Caught in the cold rain

Its been a little rough here for the last couple of days. Temperatures are into the 70s but no sun. Yesterday it rained from 8:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon. Although the box turtles stayed out the night, I finally bought them in around 11:00 am when the rain got heavy and they were heading into the highest area of their enclosure.

Frankie was out for the night and all day yesterday. He sat with his head out his door watching the rain. I felt pretty bad for him. I brought him a handful of grasses and weeds (and got soaked in rain because of it). Regretfully, by 6:00 pm Frankie was so cold he wouldn't even back up fully inside his enclosure (this can happen to sulcata and it is a very dangerous situation). I dragged him back inside his enclosure and tried to get the heater to come on. I mess something up and it wouldn't come on so I made the decision to drag Frankie inside the house to get him warm.

Since he would hardly move, I did have to drag him partially across the grass to get him closer to his wagon. Once in the wagon I got him into the garage. Then I put him on his skateboard (wagon can't get around the car) and dragged him into the gecko room. Still he was too cold to get into his indoor night box. So I pushed him to the front opening. Frankie managed to get himself inside. (Just one mention as to how badly my back aches today)

This morning he was awake when I went to water the geckos at 6:45 am. At 7:00 when I was finished I stopped by to check on Frankie again and he was asleep. I really hope he doesn't get sick. Tomorrow is Do Dah Day Pet Parade and I have really looked forward to bringing him there. I will be back down in the gecko room to feed in a couple of hours and think I will put Frankie on top of his other heat pad.

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