My little brother, age 8, sent his allowance in an envelope to buy a little turtle.

If memory serves, and it certainly may not, they were called “matchbox turtles” because of their size. The label misled. They were very small but not that small.

It came. It did not move. My mother was afraid the turtle had died during shipping so she put it in a shallow dish with some cool water—the dish was the kind you put kitchen cooking spoons in, about one inch deep at most—and put the dish in her music room. My brother would not see it if it had not lived. The turtle was being given a chance to revive.

Four or so hours passed. My mother went in to check on the turtle.

It was not there. My brother was not in the house so there was not a chance that he had found it and carted it off to show his best friend.

It was not anywhere that she could find. I came home from school to find her crawling around the living room on her hands and knees, carefully patting the thick carpet as she looked for it. We knew turtles moved slowly but it was absolutely not in the music room. I joined her in the living room, also on my hands and knees. Pat. Pat. No turtle.

My father came home, saw us and asked my mother, “Did you lose your wedding ring?”

No, said my mother, we have lost a turtle, and please keep your voice down. My father was used to hearing just about anything by dinner time but even he did a double take. When she explained, he said, “I won’t look for the turtle. I will go do something to keep him from coming in here. We don’t want him to be the one to find a dead turtle. Besides, he spent his whole allowance.” My father left for distraction-duty with my brother.

Finally we had to take a break and eat dinner. Nothing was said. My brother did not have any idea when the mailman would bring his new pet so we were safe there. No questions were asked. Somehow, we got rid of him and went back to the search.

My mother decided we had been doing it all wrong. We should start with the furthest point in a straight line, more or less, and work backward. Trying to read a turtle’s mind clearly was not something we were able to do.

She went into the entrance hall and starting looking around closely. If I were a turtle, where could I be? She found it in the most unlikely place.

That tiny turtle had made a journey from his (we assumed that) new home in the shallow water dish all the way across three rooms of a 1917 house— the last room being the entrance hall. Turtle found what he must have felt was safety under the radiator and far away from people who put him in a dish. Thankfully, it was not winter so that he did not cook himself.

We could not believe this was possible but we knew where she put him and we knew where he ended up.

He could have won the Turtle Derby.

My mother put him in a much, much deeper dish with water and a rock or two.

My brother was given his turtle. Because no one knew to say no, he took it to his bedroom and put it beside his bed.

Turtle lived two weeks.

Just as the story below mentions, this small boy was fascinated with the shell and kept patting it.  He was excellent with animals of any size, but somehow its smallness was all but hypnotizing.

The turtle funeral led to a child’s being brokenhearted. He worried that he had done something wrong that he did not know was wrong.

Little did he know how much that turtle had accomplished in his short life.

My parents thought it should not be possible for animals this small to be shipped. They did not think it was right to sell them to little children when it was clear that these specimens could not live all that long. (Directions included with Turtle were spare, to say the least.)

That was many years ago, and yet, somehow, turtles like my brother’s still were for sale legally until that practice was banned by the federal government—-banned because they carry salmonella, which can be dangerous, especially to young kids.

The ban has not been honored by pet stores. Turtles still are for sale, law or no law.

Now pet frogs have been identified as a problem, too.

As the holidays near, it is important for the toy and pet pickers in your family to know about this story.

Stay away from turtles or pet stores which sell them. One could be a carrier of an infectious disease and the other is a law-breaker. Forget the frogs and turtles.

If you still buy one after this news you also need to know that the journal Pediatrics has warned that kids should not be keeping these kinds of pets in their bedrooms or in the families’ kitchens because of the salmonella risk. Pat. Pat. Pat.

Spare the kids fever, diarrhea and disappointment.

Spare the kids a potential turtle or frog funeral. There is no great time for a child to lose a pet, however brief its life.

Spare the kids the risk of exposure to an infectious disease which is easily avoided.

All of the research below has been reported by Medpage Today and published in the journal Pediatrics in 2009.

Medpage Today

(From October 20, 2009)

..”Those tiny turtles banned from sale in the U.S. because of their potential to transmit Salmonella are still on pet store shelves and have been linked to disease outbreaks, researchers say.During a 2007 outbreak, youngsters who handled a small turtle were at a 41-fold increased risk of contracting Salmonella, compared with controls (95% CI 6.9 to unbounded), the CDC’s Julie R. Harris, PhD, and colleagues reported online in Pediatrics.” (October, 2009) (Emphasis added)

(Today, December 10, 2009)

“Water frogs — particularly African Dwarf Frogs — may be responsible for infecting 48 patients in 25 states with Salmonella Typhimurium, according to government researchers. (Emphasis added)

“They join a rogues’ gallery that includes tiny turtles, which were tied to a 2007 outbreak of the disease as reported in Pediatrics in October. (See Little Turtles Tied To Salmonella Outbreak, Again)

“Small turtles continue to be sold and pose a health risk, especially to children,” the researchers said. “And many people remain unaware of the link between Salmonella infection and reptile contact.” (Emphasis added)

“In 1975, the FDA banned the sale of turtles with a carapace length of less than four inches to reduce turtle-associated Salmonella transmission, especially among young children who love to handle the tiny pets. (Ed. Note: Carapace is the name for the turtle’s shell.)

“The recent frog-borne illnesses began between June 24, 2009 and Nov. 14, 2009, with infected patients ranging from under a year old to age 54.

“But the vast majority of patients — 77% — were under 10, with a median age of 4.”

Source: Medpage Today, October 20, 2009

Source: Medpage Today, December 10, 2009

Citation: Pediatrics 2009; 124: 1388-1394.

Citation: Pediatrics Online, Early release, December 10, 1009