Shadow the Turtle

For quite a while, I had been pestering my mother to buy me a turtle. The reason for this being that I had recently began to feel some nostalgia over a turtle I had as a young boy. Back then, I used to sit out in our backyard and watch the turtle roam about its makeshift home. I knew that since I was now several years older, and we had moved to a house with a smaller yard, that I would not be able to enjoy it as much, but I pestered her all the same. Finally, after a week or two of subliminal messages and out-of-the-blue comments, she agreed.

When we got to the "Pets Discount" warehouse in Pearl City, I was giddy with joy over the prospect of picking out the perfect turtle. Much to my chagrin, however, there were at least twenty turtles in the aquarium they brought us to. After standing there for a while, I finally decided on one that stood out from the others. It didn't seem as social and had a shell that was slightly darker than the rest. Just to make the point stick out even more, I named the turtle Shadow and put black rocks into the bottom of the aquarium so that when you looked down on it, the turtle was a little harder to see.

Shadow recieved attention from not only myself, but also from my little brother. Shortly after Shadow had been brought home, my brother had convinced my mother to buy another. And so he passed several afternoons watching the turtles swim about.

One afternoon, I walked home to find my little brother scavenging about the room. I assumed he was looking for some long-lost toy, but when he saw me he frantically told me that one of the turtles was missing. Skeptically, I walked over to the aquarium's stand. The top of the tank itself had to be at least three and a half-feet high, so I doubted that either of the turtles had gotten very far if they had managed to escape. But lo and behold, as I walked up to the tank, I discovered that Shadow was nowhere to be found.

After three long days of searching, we finally found Shadow hiding behind some boxes underneath my bed. Not only had he survived the drop unscathed, he had also managed to survive three days without food or water (turtles are amphibians and therefore need more water than your average creature). I myself feel willing to eat my hand if I miss even two meals in one day. And to go without liquid for that long seems unfathomable. So, for his remarkable strength, and iron will, Shadow is a hero in both my, and my brother's eyes.