Erasmus of Provo

On August 30, 2008 we bought a turtle. His name is Erasmus and I am exceedingly fond of him. Erasmus, however, is anti social and likes to stay under neath his basking rock. He still startles easily, which makes sense, because he is a turtle. He seems content though. He eats when he wants to and just loafs about in the water or basks on his rock under his heat lamp when he needs some warming up. We have him on a 'day and night' schedule. His light is not on all 24 hours, so he has a 'night time.' He seems content enough with his food pellets but I give him lettuce from time to time.

In this picture you can see him in all of his majesty. Oh, he is a red-eared slider. Check out the coloring, it's pretty awesome.

Danny and I are also convinced that Erasmus comes out and parties while we are at school/work. We come home, open the door, and behold! Erasmus is on his basking rock! If we are home all day though, he usually does not come out at all. We also suspect he is musical. A couple Sundays ago I was listening to Mormon Tabernacle Choir kinda loud (as is appropriate because it sounds even more amazing). And Erasmus started doing this motion with his paw (or claw?) and it looked like he was conducting the music!! It was actually in the correct tempo too. Another time, while Danny was cleaning out the tank, Erasmus was sitting in his box. Danny put the box next to his computer and turned on an Oldies station. When Danny came back from cleaning the tank Erasmus was poking his head out of the box looking at the computer.

Here's a picture of Danny holding Erasmus. Anyway, that's about sums up Erasmus. Oh, and one of my best pals, Alex, has given Erasmus a full name. Erasmus B. Dragen. I decided that the B stands for Bartholomew.

And one more thing, Erasmus is named after Desiderious Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Renaissance humanist. Yes, I named him. :D