Turtles Myth

My family owns two turtles up to date. We’ve been having them since I was a kid; maybe around 1997. At the beginning, my mom bought us five young-and-small turtles to enhance her kids’ loving passion for pets, I assumed. To be frank, we had had several dogs before, which ended up died for some reasons; from silly things (we forgot to feed the puppies when our maid was leaving for Lebaran) to sad one (somebody -probably a thief- gave poison to my dog that he died soon since he was bleeding too much *sob*). We’re dog lovers indeed, even though we’re not pretty good to keep a dog long live in our house.

As for turtles, we’ve named them Aaron (Kwok) and Andy (Lau). Yes, they’re man’s names, sorry. No offense. I’ve owned them when I was a kid, remember? And by the time they were given to me, I was addicted to Chinese movies and their actors as well. The rest is history.

Aaron and Andy are Brazilian turtles. I put them into a round-large plastic basin outside the house, near the garden. Somehow I’m a bit confused with Aaron’s shell. It’s not as pretty as Andy’s (the yellowish-green one), easily get mossy yet lose its shell pattern. I suggest he’s not Brazilian, but well, who cares anyway. They’ve been growing very big; bigger than my palms. They have a big hole of mouth that could eat your fingertip as you point it, and their nails; they could tear your skin! No kidding.

As for the food, I often feed them with fish food. Sometimes combine it with rice, vegetables, or papayas. I know it sounds crazy, but they look fine and healthy all the time. I took this picture yesterday, soon after I changed their water.

Some Chinese say having turtles as pets are good for hoki (luckiness) since turtles are long live reptiles. However, on the other hand, some of my Chinese friends think that keeping them as pets will bring a bad luck because usually Chinese releases turtles in particular occasion to avoid bad luck and bring long-liveness to the family. I don’t have any idea which one is true. Do you know the truth? Feel free to tell me.