My little buddy Percy died about an hour ago. This is the last photo I took of him - that's him on the right, with Gertrude. It was taken a few days ago when he was on the comeback trail (or so I thought). Last Monday I cleaned their big new superdooper mega-tank, and was a bit worried by how mossy the slate bricks were getting - so opted not to put them back in till after I gave them a big scrub later on that evening. I thought they would be able to get up onto the basking rock without the use of those bricks but it seems I was wrong. Red eared sliders aren't the strongest of swimmers - they need to take pit-stops.

When I got home Monday night, Percy was upside down in the bottom of the tank, not moving. I grabbed him out of the water and I was pretty relieved when he started moving... After a quick search on the net, I followed the instructions on how to save a drowned turtle and after a few hours I was pretty confident he'd pull through. I kept him in a separate tank with a really low level of heated water and put him out for walks every morning. He was getting stronger and stronger but he wasn't interested in food at all.

This morning, after his walk, I put him in the feed tank with Gertrude. I don't know what was going on in the poor little fella's head, but he started walking under the water with his mouth wide open breathing in water. I pulled him out quickly and hung him head down to drain the water but the damage was already done. He spent the last hours of his life gasping for air and making laboured noises (yes, as I wrote that last post). It was pretty horrible. Reminded me of some other deaths I've experienced in recent years. It's a sad day.

I buried him out in the garden, next to the stone lantern. Rest in peace little buddy.

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