Scales

August 31, 2007 at 4:37 PM

My friend Jake has black and orange scales down his arms, like miniaturized saucers, that grow more distinct toward his claws before tapering off into ordinary reptilian skin. Jake, I might mention, is my son’s pet—an ornate box turtle with a long speckled neck and curiously intelligent eyes. Jake is now my friend because we spend a lot of time together these days. It all developed a few months ago when I noticed a dark spongy build-up near his claws, like he’d stepped in blueberries and then dirt. Which he’s been known to do. Only this time it didn’t wash off. Then he began to limp. Off to the vet we went.

“Ah,” said the veterinarian, turning an indignant Jake this way and that, whose response was to pee on him. “This fungus covering his claws? We don’t want that.”

“Ah,” I said helpfully, then proceeded to answer his questions about diet, care, housing, heating, in an increasingly apologetic tone, trying to remember who it was who’d told me box turtles were nearly indestructible.

The vet set Jake down. “He’ll need fourteen days of antibiotics, a nightly bath in Betadyne, some extra care for a while. After I show you how to give him an antibiotic injection—you don’t have a problem with needles, do you?—we’ll discuss husbandry."

Husbandry: not the “honey, I’m home” type, either. More like the “find an extra thirty minutes in your day to bathe, inject and exercise this turtle and let’s face it, neither your husband nor your eight year old are going to volunteer for the task” type. Fine, then. I can multi-task most of it. But the part where he ambles around outside for twenty minutes and you can’t lose sight of him?

Scales. Of course.

This, then, is our new routine. And weirdly, I like it. I’ve always started off my daily violin practice with twenty minutes of scales, so why not outside? The air is mild, the trees provide shade. My family and I live on three acres in a mountain community and from our front lawn I observe the beauty around me—the hills, shaggy redwoods, blue sky and smoky hues of more distant ridges. There I am with my fiddle, working my way through C and G major, F and B flat major, while Jake bobbles along, limp and fungus now gone thanks to my excellent husbandry skills.

I play differently with my eyes trained on a turtle shuffling through grass that occasionally obscures him. With my visual attention thus distracted but my ears 100 percent free to listen, I hear my notes differently. I see them, not with my eyes on the fingerboard, but in my head. I process the resonating tones in a more satisfying way. It’s as if my brain has slowed down to Jake’s pace.

Twenty minutes pass, just like that. Jake gives me enough time to finish a cycle—a two octave scale, one long and two short bows, then one note per bow using the fourth finger on the way down—before he has reached the end of the lawn and the driveway. Grab turtle, return him to grass. Then an arpeggio before I run through my Bytovetsky scale for that key. Grab turtle, return him to grass. A fiddle tune or short memorized piece, then on to the next key and listening, really listening for the right note, the reassuring response from the violin when I get it right.

The violin likes when I get it right. It just sings for me when I’m warmed up and conscious of intonation. The turtle likes it too. I don’t know if it’s the timing—the way he moves quicker through my G and C major scales, and starts to mellow out by the time I’m working through the F and B flat major—but we all seem to hit some stride after twenty minutes, the violin, turtle and I. I’ll stroll over, turning the final Bytovetski into a ballad of sorts and I’ll join Jake. Upon hearing my approach, he stops, cocks his head and regards me with those oddly knowing eyes. He likes F major, I’m sure of it. He never runs from me by F major time. Or maybe it’s the tune I play in F major. He’ll listen, I’ll play, we’re both in the shade by that time, on the far side of the yard. He’s inches from dense shrubbery, which was his goal, but he doesn’t dart in, even though my presence signifies that I’m about to reach over, pick him up and deposit him once again on the lawn, far from burrow-worthy material. But he doesn’t go. So neither do I. We all just hang out, there in the dappled shade, listening to my violin sing out scales.

From Anne Horvath
Posted on August 31, 2007 at 5:07 PM

This is so awesome! If you are not careful Terez, Kurt Sassmanshaus is going to steal your turtle for his "Virtuous Moments" practicing method!

I really like reptiles...a lizard lives on the deck here. I named him "Bob". If I get too close, he puffs out his throat into a bright orange ball.

From Terez Mertes
Posted on August 31, 2007 at 9:00 PM

>I really like reptiles...a lizard lives on the deck here. I named him "Bob". If I get too close, he puffs out his throat into a bright orange ball.

Oh, this is so cute! Of course I'm sure the lizard would like to say, "You're not supposed to think I'm CUTE, doing this, dammit!"

From Mendy Smith
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 5:32 AM

Terez - Can I borrow your turtle so I can focus on my scale practices better than I do today?

From Terez Mertes
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 1:45 PM

Mendy, LOL! Hey, I thought of you last Friday - the family and I went to Loch Lomond, took at paddle boat out to the island, had lunch, puttered, took a hike. It was really nice - I was surprised at how uncrowded it was. And so very very pretty. My hub had never been there before and I'd only been once. Anyway, thought of you as we drove through Lompico.

From Anne Horvath
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 4:54 PM

Just for the record, I leave Bob alone. The first time I saw him (her? Bobbette?), I did approach him carefully, and he did his mighty orange puff-out, so I got the message. Now I just watch him skittle around. Or sunbathe. I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I needlessly torment wild reptiles. Bob does his thing, and he is welcome to his own peace.

Turtles are so interesting. I would get one, but I am afraid that the felines might be a little too fascinated. I bet Jake adds a lot of joy to your family!

From Terez Mertes
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 8:19 PM

Anne - we have a feline, too. Pretty entertaining encounter the first few times the two pets met (very very carefully supervised), but actually now we can leave them alone in a room together. Box turtles have such a good defense - they can completely close up, but I must say, early on when we got the turtle, I had a dream that the cat leapt out and attacked and that was the end of the turtle. I felt just terrible, even after I woke up. Our cat is older and relatively mellow - I think if the turtle outlived him (which he probably will) and we got a new cat, we'd have to put an end to the turtle's living room wandering time.

My son is a HUGE fan of lizards. We just have the plain western fence lizards out here - less than six inches for the most part - but he just loves trying to catch them. In fact, it was his sorrow a few years ago over our insistence that he release it that made me say, "Okay, we'll get you a pet lizard." Then I heard they were hard to keep healthy. So I got him an "indestructible" turtle. Ha. The joke is on me, yes?

Frankly, I'm a big fan of "nature's pets." They're so much easier to take care of. : )

From Anne Horvath
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 8:53 PM

Nature's Pets = The Best.

They are free. No vet bills. And if their feet get moldy (ew) it is not your problem.

Bob is a Carolina, or Green Anole.

I am not sure if I would trust my felines with a reptile, box turtle or otherwise. I once found an Anole tail on the living room floor. That's right, just a tail. The felines didn't share their hunting story. Which I suppose is good, because it would probably be more boring than a fishing story. :)

Speaking of Nature's Pets, a couple of wrens built a nest on the deck this summer, in a bucket. After the Peeps were born (on The 4th of July, AKA American Impudence Day), they left. I don't think the deck is big enough for people, Bob, and The Wren Family Complainers! The felines stay inside, so they weren't part of the equation, but I do believe that if they could, they would vote for "Dove Under Glass".

From Terez Mertes
Posted on September 1, 2007 at 10:58 PM

>I once found an Anole tail on the living room floor. That's right, just a tail.

Oh, soooo funny!

>Speaking of Nature's Pets, a couple of wrens built a nest on the deck this summer, in a bucket. After the Peeps were born (on The 4th of July, AKA American Impudence Day), they left. I don't think the deck is big enough for people, Bob, and The Wren Family Complainers!

We once had starlings build a nest in the eaves of a balcony overhang (I'm sure I'm using all the wrong terms.) Boy, oh boy. Noisy. Not fun in the least. As soon as they all flew away, we stuffed the crevasse with aluminum foil so we wouldn't get any nesters again in that spot.

From Roelof Bijkerk
Posted on September 4, 2007 at 11:32 AM

"My friend Jake has black and orange scales down his arms, like miniaturized saucers, that grow more distinct toward his claws before tapering off into ordinary reptilian skin."

To bad about his not being able to wander around. If he scaled the fence who knows what colors they would turn out to be.

From Terez Mertes
Posted on September 4, 2007 at 6:42 PM

>If he scaled the fence who knows what colors they would turn out to be.

Roelof, I like this image. : )

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