He spent the first year of his life as the class pet in Clay's 5th grade classroom - enjoying the activity while sunning himself on his log and doing yoga. After that he lived here with us, graduating to progressively larger and larger tanks as he kept growing. In the past, when we would ask Clay about letting Thomas go live in the lake again, he always said that he would know when the time was right because he would catch another baby turtle. He felt that finding a baby turtle would be a sign from God that it was time to let Thomas go.
Today, God gave us that sign - not once, but twice!
Oh, I knew this day would come - but I didn't think it would be so hard to see him leave.
You see, I have a soft spot for Thomas. I delight in watching him do yoga....he's not as flexible these days as he was in his youth, but he still tried. When he was younger, his yoga pose was to raise one front leg and the opposite back leg while he sunned himself. Lately, he would clamber upon his log (sometimes it took a few tries for him to heave himself up) and rest upon his massive shell while raising ALL his legs up and enjoying the heat.
I loved going and sitting in the big, comfy chair next to his tank and watching him swim gracefully around his tank. Again, there wasn't a lot of swimming these days because he was getting too big for his tank.
Clay caught these two guys (gals?) in the creek. That's how small Thomas was when he caught him almost 5 years ago.
Look how big he is now!!
We all went out to say goodbye to Thomas.
Isn't he cute? Just look at that sweet face!
Today we said goodbye to Thomas.
We wish him well.
We wish him safety and happiness.
We hope that he'll find a cute little girl turtle and fall in love.
Good luck Thomas. We love you!
We will miss you.
