Special Turtle

Here's our rescued six-inch Western Pond Turtle. A coworker found him (her?) in the middle of a busy road and, not realizing he was a water turtle, scooped him up, took him home, and plopped him into a tankful of soil and offered him veggies which he could not eat without being under water. Most everyone at works knows I love turtles, so guess what! I brought him home and then spent a small fortune on a 100-gallon stock tank, filter, pump, lights, heater, water chemicals, plants, "companion" fish (he can't catch one to save his life), all necessary components to keep a water turtle happy, but it SO doesn't match our colonial bedroom decor!! The first filter setup I tried was guaranteed to process ONE THOUSAND GALLONS OF WATER AN HOUR and therefore our bedroom sounded like the pump room for the Hoover Dam or Shamu's pool. We had to yell to communicate. That filter, with a somewhat smaller pump, promptly wound up outside at Mr. Spoiled Rotten Pet's summer digs, the 150 gallon stock tank. Gotta love those "free" pets. He is quite cute though - must have been someone's pet - he has the traditional but disgusting hole drilled in the edge of his shell for a "leash", has a white scar on his head from some injury, and does have some eyesight problems which necessitates me hand feeding him the freshly homemade 7-ingredient turtle food cubes every other day or so.