Shanekwa, The Turtle

Shanekwa is a turtle we bought in Chinatown last year. We bought her with her brother Jason. The two turtles lived in a little house with a little bit of water. Shanekwa was much stronger than Jason. She would run around in circles around the tank. I couldn’t believe how fast this turtle would run. She ran like a marathon racer!

Aren’t turtles supposed to be slow?

When food entered the tank, Shanekwa raced and ate everything. Soon, Jason became very frail and weak. He died a few weeks later. Shanekwa didn’t seem to care. There was more food for her!

Once we went away for a week. I asked the people at HJMT to watch her. Lori and Lisa were very excited about watching Shanekwa. Tim, who was my office manager at the time, didn’t want anything to do with her.

While I was away, a woman came in for an interview. Kristie was on the phone. Lori was at her computer and the woman sat in the waiting area talking with Shanekwa. She was actually having a conversation with the turtle! Do you think the turtle was talking back?

When winter came, we couldn’t control the temperature in Shanekwa’s little house, so we decided to buy a 100 gallon tank with a filter and heating system. Derek and I decided to decorate, but Brian did most of the work in the tank. Thank you Brian!

Now, Shanekwa isn’t such a small little turtle any longer. She’s the size of a hockey puck!

Every day I go into Derek’s room to wake him for school and she hears me coming. She starts to wag her tail like a dog and jump up and down in the tank, waiting for food. What a spoiled turtle. She has a variety of food — shrimp, little pebbles of I don’t know what, krill and roaches. The worst part of this array of food, is that the roaches are in a little can in my refrigerator. It’s so embarrassing! I just hope no one thinks we’re eating the stuff!!!!

Tonight I was talking with Elisa G. on Facebook. Elisa used to work at HJMT as our graphic artist. She was with the firm for a long time. It’s nice that I still talk with her because I really enjoyed working with her. She was asking me about Shanekwa and she said, Shanekwa is the dog you never had. She’s right!

Shanekwa, the dog we never had…

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This post was originally published on the HilaryTopper.com blog in March 2008.  I wanted to share it with you again…

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DISCLOSURE: MY OWN OPINIONS

I have not received any compensation for writing this content and I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein.