You have probably seen turtles for sale in many Pet Stores. Back in the mid 1900's, they sold turtles in dime stores. Normally, the turtles didn't live long, but this turtle is an extreme exception. This turtle is 48 years old and has lived his whole healthy life in captivity!

Here you see Mr. Turtle (Mr. T. for short), whom is owned by my parents. When my mother was just about 10 years old she purchased this turtle in a dime store. And 48 years later, she still has him.

His home resides in a baby bath tub in my parent's basement in Michigan. Although, we really haven't done much research, we believe he is a painted turtle. He eats romaine lettuce, dry Quaker oats, and turtle food. He also has a small board that lays across his tub. Sometimes we put him on there, if he feels a need to go back in the water, then he does. In the winter he hibernates, hardly eating at all!

In the summer we use a small kiddy pool, fill it with a little water, and put him in the pool. He loves to be out there on warm days. This picture to the right is of him wading in his pool. Look at how he stretches his back legs out.

In the past he has roamed my parent's backyard. One day, we lost track of time and found him way in the back of the backyard. Can you imagine what a journey that was for him because my parents backyard is HUGE!

About 8 years ago he became ill. There was a small spot about the size of a pea on the bottom of his shell. My mother took him to the vet to only discover he had salmonella. In case you weren't aware, turtles carry salmonella all the time. He originally started out with a bacterial infection that then turned into salmonella. Because of his age, apparently, he wasn't able to fight off the bacterial infection. With Salmonella being poisonous to humans we handled him with gloves and made sure to wash our hands each time. The diagnosis was a shot in his leg every day for 10 days. My mother wasn't real thrilled with the idea of giving a turtle a shot for 10 days so she took him into the vet every day to get his shots. Along with the shots, she was also given some medicine. She had to soak him in this medicine twice a day for about 10 minutes.  It seems as if the shots and the soaking helped. After a bit, the spot went away and he was given a clean bill of health.

We check him often to ensure he doesn't flip himself over. Because, in case you didn't know, turtles can die if they are kept upside down for a long period of time.

There was one instance, I am sure he didn't enjoy. I had gone downstairs and had noticed that Rascal (my parent's cat) was sitting on top of his shell. He was up on his board at the time. Rascal wasn't a full grown cat at the time, but he did weigh about 5 pounds or so. Can you imagine what the poor turtle thought. Rascal was sitting down right on his shell like it was no big deal, just like he was sitting on the floor.

In 2003, my mother put a large rock in his pool for him to see if he would use it. He got up on it all by himself. In the picture to the right, he just got on his rock and is sort of half on and half off. It was kind of funny to see this turtle perched on this rock. When he has his back legs sticking out, we joke that he looks like a hood ornament!

To this day Mr. Turtle is going strong and living a happy life. He enjoys his summers wading in his pool and in winter hibernating in my parents basement. My mother has always said that he knows when it is time to come in from outside because he gets off his rock and waits her arrival in the summer.

He has been the talk of the family for many years and we are still amazed to this day with his age. If you think about it he is older then many of us and has been through many historical events in the world, not that he would know any better though. As long as he has his water, food, and TLC he will always be a happy turtle!

It is official. Mr Turtle is now a camping turtle! It took him 48 years, but he finally went on his first camping trip in June 2006. He is really easy to take care of while camping because he just wades in his kiddie pool and sits on his rock! He even gets more attention this way and loves the outdoors. See our 2006 Camping Trips for pictures of Mr. Turtle while camping!

Although his looks really don't change much through the years you can see many neat pictures of him in Mr. Turtle's Photo Album.

Mr. Turtle doesn't only fascinate family and friends, but he was so popular to have his picture in the paper along with an article about him, twice! Mr. Turtle had two articles written about him in the South Bend Tribune. The most recent article is dated 6/27/03. You can also see the article written on 1/11/93, over 11 years ago. Please click on the below links to read the articles written about this amazing turtle!

TLC Keeps Pet Turtle Moving at Age 34 - January 11, 1993
Throughout Her Life, Mr. T has been there - June 27, 2003

Last Update: 6/22/06