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MORNING TELEGRAPH (Tyler, Texas) 19 August 07 Retired Nurse Rescues, Cares For Box Turtles (Cindy Mallette)
Murchison: Teri Pezeta picks up one of her road warriors and flips him on his back. "You're just a wiggle-worm, aren't you?" she says to the 8-year-old terrapin who's just finished an earthworm breakfast.
Pesticides have blackened parts of his underbelly. Like most of the 53 terrapins in her care, this one was picked up from the road. It has a crack in its carapace - the top part of the shell - mostly healed thanks to Ms. Pezeta's handiwork.
"The farmers don't know the damage pesticides can do, and they are more concerned with their crops," she said. "And terrapins don't know to move out of the area. That's where he's born, and he's gonna keep coming back there."
Ms. Pezeta has been caring for terrapins for 15 years. Terrapin - or terrapene - is the genus name for the box turtles that live in her back yard. Terrapins are generally freshwater turtles, and box turtles are just one type. They have distinct hinged plastrons (underbellies) that allow their shells to close completely.
Chip was Ms. Pezeta's first terrapin. She found the reptile alongside a road in the fall of 1992. It had a slight crack in its shell, no doubt a gift from a passing car.
"We put her in a box, but she got out," Ms. Pezeta said. "These things are excellent climbers."
She used duct tape to seal the crack until the shell repaired itself. In early November, a now-healthy Chip decided to hibernate.
"I dug a hole in a corner next to the house, put a wire cage over it and covered it back up with dirt," Ms. Pezeta said. "She burrowed under, and the next April she woke up."
About that time, Ms. Pezeta found her second terrapin on the road. Naturally, one thing led to another.
"The next thing you know, I have to enlarge my pen. I had 10 of them by the end of the first year."
Ms. Pezeta calls these terrapins her "road warriors" because she finds them on roadways where they are in danger of traffic.
"People will run over them on purpose," she said. "I've seen them do it."
She says the turtles are habitual in their travels and will walk for miles in search of food, sex and water.
"They may have been going a certain way for 20 years, and then a road comes through," she said. "Well, they're going to keep traveling that direction."
.Visney is the latest addition to Ms. Pezeta's turtle sanctuary. Her bulging eyes are a tell-tale sign she's sick.
"She's not doing real well. I've been putting her in an antibiotic soak every day," Ms. Pezeta says.
On a trip to Dallas in April, Ms. Pezeta's husband, John, discovered Visney crouched in the middle of the road.
"She was lost in a storm," Ms. Pezeta said. "My husband goes, 'I don't believe this! Where else but in Keller, Texas, in a rainstorm, at 9 o'clock at night do we see a terrapin?'"
Visney had a lot of pesticide damage to her shell, so much that Ms. Pezeta doesn't know if she'll live much longer.
"I'm trying so hard to save her, but she's a challenge," Ms. Pezeta says. "She doesn't have the will to keep going."
Visney ate a piece of earthworm a few days ago, and Ms. Pezeta finds some encouragement in that.
"I may spring for a vet bill on this one. I don't know."
She picks Visney up out of the pen and rubs the turtle's forehead.
"She's got a little bit of a headache," Ms. Pezeta says, then looks into the Visney's swollen eyes.
"It's OK, baby. We're gonna try to get you feeling better."
Ms. Pezeta has loved turtles since she was a kid, but she didn't know much about them. So, the retired nurse took up studies in terrapin biology.
"You want to know how to care for them the right way, so you get books on it. That's what I've done. I've just educated myself," she said.
It turns out that caring for 53 turtles is a huge undertaking. Their diet is specific: earthworms and other creepy-crawlies for protein and berries, fruits and grasses for nutrients.
"That's one of my biggest concerns: how do I feed them?" Ms. Pezeta said.
Blueberry Hill Farms in Edom lets Ms. Pezeta retrieve berries that people leave on the ground when they go berry picking. Edom Bakery and Grill gives her their leftover salad mixtures, and Van United Methodist Church shares food donations that aren't consumable anymore.
"Finding food gets to be an issue," she said. "Occasionally, I have to go and buy food for them because I've got so many now."
Ms. Pezeta's turtles are more than pets, but not quite family. They crawl toward her when she visits the backyard pens, and she says they recognize their own names.
"I've just kinda run out of names," she said. "But, if they have something definite about their personalities, then I will name them."
Ms. Pezeta doesn't explain how her two favorites, Tatu and Tangerine, got their names. But she does tell why they're so special to her.
"One year we had a storm, and a branch knocked part of the fence down. I lost a whole bunch of terrapins," she said. "Tatu and Tangerine got away.
"Well, I was just mourning the whole winter. I couldn't believe my two favorites were gone, because Tatu literally rode around in my car, on my shoulder. I'd take him everywhere.
"The next spring, I'm feeding the terrapins and John says, 'That turtle follows you around just like Tatu.' I look down and I see the misshapen shell and the chip, and sure enough, here is Tatu!
"About a week later, I find Tangerine on his side, looking like Playturtle of the Month, lying in the sun waiting for feeding time outside of the pen.
"They knew when feeding time was and where it was. They were waiting for me."
Ms. Pezeta scoffs at people who say rescuing turtles is a waste of time.
"There are two different thinkings on it: some people say they're wild and they should stay that way," she said. "My thinking is, I'm saving the ones that are crossing the roads because they're gonna keep crossing those roads. So, I think I'm doing a good thing."
Besides, she says, they're breeding in captivity.
"If they're not happy, they wouldn't be doing that."
A female terrapin doesn't have to lay eggs if she doesn't want to, Ms. Pezeta explains.
"If she doesn't feel like there's enough soil, or it's not warm enough, she may not lay her eggs. On the other hand, she can lay one of Tom's, one of Dick's, and one of Harry's - it doesn't matter. They don't mate for life, especially not in a pen," Ms. Pezeta said, adding: "There are a couple of males in the pen and that's their sole purpose in life."
Ms. Pezeta hopes to expand her turtle sanctuary soon, and she's researching grants and possible state funding to pay for the swelling numbers.
She said she's encouraged by parents who bring their children to see the "Turtle Lady," and her terrapin terrarium.
"I'm really fond of my little fellows," she said. "If even one kid or one person becomes interested in what could help the terrapin species, then I haven't wasted any time."
Retired Nurse Rescues, Cares For Box Turtles

The sad part is that what she's doing (collecting turtles, or ANY reptiles/amphibians from roads) is now ILLEGAL in TX, and has been for a few months now (see Herp Law/CITES Forum).
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

They claim that she'll be able to get a permit for rehab. Or if she works with a Vet., she should be covered under their exemption. That is how I had to do things while living in NC.

>>They claim that she'll be able to get a permit for rehab. Or if she works with a Vet., she should be covered under their exemption. That is how I had to do things while living in NC.

This will be interesting, considering one of the reasons for banning road/right-of-way herping was for traffic safety...I guess she will somehow be safer collecting turtles, than I am taking pictures of snakes.

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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

>>They claim that she'll be able to get a permit for rehab. Or if she works with a Vet., she should be covered under their exemption. That is how I had to do things while living in NC.

That's what I'm hoping for, my vet's exemption.
She had all her paperwork done for the sanctuary sent it all in on time then months later 4 paragraphs were sent back to her with a request for more clarification, she got that sent back in at the beginning of Aug. so once again she's waiting. More govt. red-tape that takes forever to hear back on.
In the meantime Cookie is my foster who belongs to the vet.
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PHRatz

>>The sad part is that what she's doing (collecting turtles, or ANY reptiles/amphibians from roads) is now ILLEGAL in TX, and has been for a few months now (see Herp Law/CITES Forum).
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That's what I'm wondering about..being in TX myself how is the state going to handle people like her who are not selling or trading them?
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PHRatz