I’ve posted pictures of my dog a thousand times, but my family has also other pets that are easily left out of the limelight — turtles.
I saw a post on facebook today from an animal welfare group in Helsinki, and it told that two red ear turtles were looking for a new home. It’s a familiar story. Turtles end up being abandoned way too often. Maybe because they are misunderstood, people don’t know what they are getting themselves into when they get a turtle as a pet. Turtles are good pets, but only for the right owners. 
Turtles are not as social as dogs, they can’t be pet like a cat, but still they need to be taken care of. Feeding them a couple of times a week doesn’t sound too bad but cleaning the aquarium is a different story. But they are fun to watch, interesting and cute in their own way.
My family took turtles when I was about 5 years old. I wanted a dog and my parents tried to take the easy way out. Now the turtles (that are living at my parents house), Emma and Vippis, are already over twenty years old and will probably live at least another twenty. They don’t get as much as attention as my chihuahua and they aren’t warm and fuzzy. But still, I’m always happy they are there. I hope other turtle owners would be too, so less pet turtles would end up in the nature on their own, where they barely have any chances (at least in this cold Finland)…
I took these picture last summer when Emma and Vippis were outing.
photojourneylism 