Turtles On The Move!

Our son's birthday was just a few weeks ago. He wanted a turtle. He got one and named it Myrtle! The day of his birthday party he got a second turtle and named it (drum roll please)... Myrtle. Both turtles belonged to the same family and they will be moving out-of-state soon so they gave them to us! They said the second one seemed sad without its friend, relative- not sure how they are related. They are both cute little red-eared sliders!
I've never been into turtles but these little creatures have grown on us. Besides, unlike the other two we are raising outside of an aquarium, they can't talk, don't eat much, and you can look at 'em through a glass for a few minutes then walk away. Low maintenance!
Well it was Dude's idea to allow Myrtle I and Myrtle II to stay in our son's room. I didn't like it but I knew it wouldn't last long. I warned him (son) nicely!
"You got one time to not be responsible and they will be coming out of here!"
"You just gone throw them outside?" he asked.
"You know what I mean!" I replied.
And Dude never trusted him with them. He hid the food from him.
Well it did not last long.
Now I know that sometimes they (he and his sister) take the turtles out to play with them and we explained the whole deal about salmonella and washing their hands thoroughly so it had not been a problem... until Sunday night.
It was bedtime.
Our daughter stands in the doorway of our bedroom attempting to look innocent.
"Mama," she said softly. "We can't find one of the turtles."
"What do you mean you can't find a turtle? And why are you talking so low?" I asked.
She is never quiet.
Dude was in his favorite spot... on the couch. I nicely woke him.
"DADDY! Get up. Your kids have lost one of the turtles!"
He jumped up like he usually does- boxing the air.
Once he finally realized where he was and what I said, he smacked his lips and ran upstairs- fussing along the way.
"How long has the turtle been lost?" I asked the kids.
"Well we-" our daughter began.
"You know what. Don't say nothin'. I can't believe this. Y'all have lost a turtle in the house. I mean he could be pooping somewhere!" I scolded.
"Who let the turtle out?" I added.
"Um... well I-" our son tried to chime in.
"Didn't I say not to say nothin'?"
After about 10 minutes our son found one of the Myrtles. He was behind his Batman cave. Just chillin' inside his shell.
Poor thing. As soon as Dude put him back in the water he was all over that aquarium. If he could have talked I know he would have said,
"I gots to go! These people are crazy! Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello- where are y'all?"
We didn't move the little Ninjas then but not long after that our son struck again.
I went into his room for inspection. The room was fairly clean. But something just didn't feel quite right. Ya ever get that feeling? Anyway... I looked over at the aquarium. There were bubbles- suds in the water. Myrtle and Myrtle had their little heads out of the water. Normally when I would walk in there near them they went to the bottom.
They'd had enough!
"DADDY!" I yelled.
He and his sister came in and looked shocked. Like they were looking at the suds for the first time.
Before I could ask anything our son said, "I didn't did that."
"You didn't did that?" I laughed.
Mothers have good instincts and mine were saying from the look of him playing with his fingers and not being able to make eye contact- that he was guilty.
"Look at this! Why is there a paper towel over in here near the filter?" Dude asked.
His sister sang like a bird.
She explained that her brother used some of the soap from their bathroom then tried to get it out with that paper towel. The little rascal didn't think to get the paper towel out. He did not get that from his mama.
I conveniently had some work to do so I slipped away while Dude cleaned up everything and moved the turtles downstairs where we could keep an eye on them better.
The turtles didn't last twenty days in his room. I knew it!