Personal Narrative: Drowny

In 2014 my family got our first pet that wasn’t a fish. A little turtle which we named Drowny, as a joke. He was dark green with a 2-inch shell that was spotted with light green dots. His eyes were huge on his giant head. Our dad saw him on the golf course earlier that day, and he scooped him up into a Gatorade bottle with water. My siblings and I were immediately infatuated with Drowny. Drowny was really cool. He would tuck his legs into his shell and look like a rock, and he would swim around while doing water flips. Nora would read books like Go Dog, Go to Drowny and Chika would say good morning and good night to him. Drowny was the main thing we talked about. We used the Internet do discover that turtles ate worms, plants, and

So, we asked our father to see if we could get a new fish bowl for Drowny. It took some time to convince him that the bowl would actually last, but he did take me to get a fish bowl at the pet store. When we arrived at the pet store, I saw tanks and bowls of almost all sizes. I searched everywhere for a tank or a bowl that would be perfect for a small turtle, but I couldn’t. The only turtle tanks are for turtles that were fully grown. After I couldn’t find one, my father had to ask a store worker where to find a small tank for a baby turtle, but the store worker gave us very surprising information. According to the worker, baby turtles carry potent amounts of salmonella, which can easily be given to humans. In fact, less than 4-inch turtles are so dangerous that it is illegal to sell them in the United States. After I got home, I shared the news with my sisters and they were devastated that we had to loose such a great pet. We felt that Drowney was too good to receive the traditional toilet-flushing. Therefore, my sisters and I snuck into our neighbor’s backyard and dumped Drowny into their 8 foot long wide of large orange and white fishes, where we believe he was eaten. But, for all we know, Drowny is still