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Because she is, that's going to be her name.
She's survived several crush injuries from dog teeth including one that had her head trapped inside her shell. She survived 3 types of internal parasites and fly strike. Then she had a problem with not being able to open her eyes after all those antiparasite and antibiotic drugs had been administered. She spent an entire month in the hospital then...
Finally on Thursday she was well enough to leave the hospital so she is now my foster turtle who will stay until she recovers completely.
The vet is so proud of her because she made it through all that.
She's eating very very well, she'll eat anything I put in front of her no matter if it's plant or insect.
Ta- da here she is, Cookie:

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PHRatz

What type of boxie is she?

O.K., someone said she is an ornate. Interesting that T. o. ornata and T. c. bauri look so alike - to me at least.

They do look a lot alike. I have one of each and you can compare ornate on the left and Florida on the right in each photo. Primary differences in the Florida is that the shell is more dome shaped, pronounced keel along the back (hard to see in my side to side photo), and yellow horizontal stipes on the face.

WOW the pic of ornate & FL side by side is great!
They do look a lot alike but you really can see the difference in the dome.
This Cookie is likely T.o. luteola, that's usually what's found around here.
The white coloring on the skin is so common around here.
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PHRatz

Way cool!!!!!!! Glad she pulled through.

I love to hear happy stories and this is one. That little Ornate is truly one tough cookie. By the sound of your typing she is going to be very hard to give up if you do after a long recovery. Best of luck to you and "cookie".

Welcome to the board, Cookie! Nice to see you up and around! I for one, am looking forward to hearing more about your exploits!
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>Welcome to the board, Cookie! Nice to see you up and around! I for one, am looking forward to hearing more about your exploits!

Cookie doesn't have many exploits yet but I did show her to Hobo the very aggressive male to see how he would react. We're kind of thinking she looks female but she's so young.. can we be sure?
The first time Hobo saw Chip by accident he took on a fighting stance with one look at Chip. That's all it took was just a look, with Cookie Hobo walked round & round then tried to sniff Cookie.. that made me think this is female or else Hobo would be posturing to fight.
Then I showed her to the females & they just sort of ignored her so she's got to be female.
Oh & btw it's bath time for her right now. I'd better go & come back later.
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PHRatz

She has very pretty markings too. I was amazed that she pulled through all that and that she looks as good as she does. I was expecting to see more damage.

>>She has very pretty markings too. I was amazed that she pulled through all that and that she looks as good as she does. I was expecting to see more damage.

I so wish that I had photos of her before she was treated. Since I wasn't the one who found her and I didn't see her until several days after the vet had started treating/repairing her I don't have them. Me too, I am amazed by how good she looks & how active she is.

My friend who did find her said that her head was stuck inside because her carapace was crushed in front of her face, she had crush injuries to her plastron too.. my friend thought she was dead already when her daughter brought her over for Mom to see.
So "Mom" pulled on a leg to see if she'd move & she did, so she told her daughter to call the vet right then & let her know that she was on the way with the turtle. It was a Saturday morning so she's lucky the vet was open until noon that day.

Cookie was repaired & sent home with me a month or so ago because the vet was on her way out of town for a seminar.. but she wasn't doing well & then I found those parasites so she went back to the hospital & the vet gave her staff orders over the phone. When the vet got back she decided to keep her for a while.

Yes it will be hard very hard to let her go when she's better but with this new law in effect in my state now..
I can't keep her forever.

She's young too, I had a kid bring in a turtle the same size as Cookie for show & tell during my June class.. the kid's grandfather said "that turtle is 4 years old this year"
I suppose then that Cookie must only be around 4 years old, she's very small compared to my adults but she's not tiny like a baby.
What a survivor she is!
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PHRatz

Wow! It never ceases to amaze me that these creatures can withstand so much, and still survive.

Thanks for sharing!

>>Wow! It never ceases to amaze me that these creatures can withstand so much, and still survive.
>>

That's it exactly. I am just awestruck by how tough these little guys are & how strong the will to live is.
Chip's injuries were as bad as Cookie's but he didn't have the added burden of parasites. I just can't get over how he made it but the diff this time is that Chip had to be tube fed, he had a very slow recovery before he could walk around and eat on his own. Cookie acts like she thinks she's fine & that blows me away.
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PHRatz

Can you get a special permit to keep Cookie, because she was dependant on people for so long, it would be dangerous to her to release her?

It is illegal here to keep EBT, but I got a permit for mine. He is perfectly heathy but he "had a history of captivity".
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>Can you get a special permit to keep Cookie, because she was dependant on people for so long, it would be dangerous to her to release her?
>>

Ya know, at the moment I don't know. When the rules changed on May 24 of this year they did state that people like me have until some time in 2008 to claim what you have if it's over 6 turtles.
There are a lot of people ticked off about that part of the rule change so I do wonder if there'll be some tweaking of the rules before that deadline happens.
My vet though does have the permits she needs because she has a tax exempt sanctuary so here is no way Cookie will ever not be cared for.
I dunno what will happen with these rules we'll just have to wait & see.
I really do need to find out what I need to do because my guess is that since this keeps happening, Cookie isn't going to be the last injured turtle to fall into my hands.
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PHRatz

Aww, Cookie! I like that and thanks for all your efforts! Hope she has a long life, full of good eats!
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Tess
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