We Gotta Know What they Eat!

Main Characters: David and Rob (age 4)
Approximate date:  July 1993

Introduction. The previous four stories in this series were all taken from a dictation that Coco and I made in the summer of 1992 that I had my secretary type up at the time. I rediscovered the manuscript in 2022. This story occurred about a year after the dictation.

Rob brought home a lizard he had captured when he was playing outside with his friends in the neighborhood. (Our house was near a 100+ acre swamp/ lake/ bayou where the Knollwood Gang spent countless hours exploring over the years.)  Rob wanted to keep the lizard as a pet.  Fine.  I looked around and found a little aquarium that one of his sisters had once used to house her goldfish.

Rob put the lizard in the aquarium along with leaves, grass , mud, peanuts, and other potential food plus a little bowl of water.  Rob checked on the lizard regularly and would gingerly pick him up and play with him (could have been a her – hard to tell a lizard’s sex.). Rob became concerned because he never observed the lizard eat anything. His fears were well placed; the lizard died. Rob was not so much much sad as he was frustrated that he had been unable to find the right food for his pet.

A couple of weeks later I was fishing at Valhalla Lake. There were several small red eared turtles on the bank and I caught two and brought them home. Rob’s first question was, “Dad, what do they eat?” Whatever answer I gave obviously did not satisfy him. 

A little while later I was I sitting in my sofa chair reading the paper. I looked up to see Rob heading for the patio. In one hand was a hammer and in the other was one of the little turtles.

“Rob, where are going?”

“Dad, we gotta know what these turtles eat! I am going to open this one up and find out, and then we will know what to feed the other one.”  The logic of Mr. Spock – cold but sound.

That boy, as have his sisters, has been such a great source of fun and joy for Coco and me.  If you are still in the family making mode, don’t stop at one or two. Go to three at least (get a Rob) or best yet, to four and also get a Sophie.

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