Not to imply that a 36' x 12' space is too small for a couple....not at all. But even the best of friends need time apart, so........when the girls get a chance to leave the boats for a while, we JUMP. One regular trip is to Beall's Outlet for Old Lady Day (Monday) for our 15% discount on swimsuits and other good stuff. We've also been known to head to the Big Pine flea market to search for things we didn't know we needed yet.
But the best trip to date is a visit to the Turtle Hospital. We'd been planning to go for some time, so Katie, Therese (we lured her away from Rick's grindstone), Candy and I finally made it. Our tour guide was a young lady who's been working with turtle rescue groups for 5 years and at the Marathon hospital for several months. She was very informative and well-spoken, and we learned a lot about turtles and their plights.
One of the major problems turtles suffer is impaction, most often caused by ingestion of foreign substances which can't be digested. Plastic is the worst offender, but some turtles have had metal objects (fish hooks, magnets, etc.) removed, and some have undigested shells as well. Impaction causes gas problems, and some turtles suffer from "bubble butt," where their rears stick up and don't allow them to submerge in search of food. Obviously this leads to weakness, anemia, and eventually starvation. The rescued turtles in this condition have weights affixed to their shells to allow them to dive (and they're also treated with fiber, oils, and Beano...really...and sometimes surgery to relieve the impaction). One turtle (available for adoption) is even named Bubble Butt.
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| Weight attached to shell to allow turtle to submerge |
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| Bubble butt floating |
Other turtles suffer from injuries caused by boats -- either propellers or collision. Some of them have shells or flippers damaged to the point that they can't survive on their own and they become permanent residents of the hospital. Others have received spinal injuries that keep them from surviving predators or from finding their own food (one poor fellow could only travel in circles, which usually created enough wash to send his food away from him when he did manage to spot it). Another lost the use of his back flippers, which of course makes it hard to forage or escape.
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| Injured shell/spine from boat propeller |
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| Bubble butt, sliced shell and paralyzed back flippers |
Some turtles were injured when they became trapped in line or nets, causing damage to or loss of their flippers. Usually they can compensate for the loss of one flipper, but more than that makes it difficult to survive.
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| Poor Bev lost her left front flipper |
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| The culprit |
It was interesting to note that the turtles have a Table of Wisdom in their pool!
Did we start the trend or did they?? The turtles are rehabilitated if possible, then released into the wild. The surgeries and treatments performed at the hospital are amazing, and it's a great facility to visit (and support).
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| Feed me! |
The hospital is in a former hotel, which was donated by a local businessman after hurricane damage. The renovation included keeping some of the hotel for use by the employees, and several of the employees have their own efficiency apartments on site. There's also a pool and it's on the bay, so there are certainly worse ways to live.
The end of our outing was at Burdine's, famous for their Chiki Tiki Sunset Bar and mostly for their amazing sandwiches and huge baskets of crispy fries. We bellied up to the trough and thoroughly enjoyed lunch. When we left we closely resembled the turtles we'd just visited.
