Pumpkin

So...

Let me tell you about Pumpkin. He's a soft shelled terrapin, a Trionychidae, who I purchased earlier this year. He's my second terrapin, the youngest of two so far, the other one being Naiade, a red eared slider. I picked him out myself, rather than let the aquarium choose him at random, and he seemed to be one of the more lively ones in the choosing tank.

Brought him home to KL, and he was initially shy, or maybe scared, and refused to eat when anyone was looking. After a while though, in the words of my wife, he developed a personality, and would immediately perk up when we held the container of shrimp over his tank, grab one as soon as we dropped it, and scurry off to his favourite feeding corner where he would work on the shrimp for a good five minutes.

My wife and I fell in love with him.

At first, he only recognized me, but he learned to recognize Zurin as well, and was always happy to see us, since it was usually feeding time. I cleaned his tank every couple of days, since shrimp tends to stink quite a bit, and bacteria tends to form up in stagnant water.

Lately though, we had been swamped with work, so we didn't pay him as much attention as usual, and what with having to move around a lot between KL and Shah Alam and PJ, and the occassional trips outstation, we just weren't around him enough, I suppose. When we were around him, we noted that he just didn't seem his usual happy self anymore.

Before this week, he had been spending a couple of weeks with my mom, who reported that he hadn't been eating properly. I brought him over to Shah Alam earlier this week, where I could keep an eye on him, and maybe he was slightly happier to finally have some attention, since he seemed to regain a bit of his old appetite, and ate quite a bit once he had settled down.

After returning from today's seminar, we took a nap, since the past few days have been quite exhausting. Waking up, I decided to check on Pumpkin to see if he was hungry, and if his tank needed cleaning.

He didn't move when I tapped the side of the container, and not even when I touched him.

My wife cried.

I want to.

We're burying him tomorrow.