SUN-TIMES (Chicago, Illinois) 18 September 07 Missing: 35-year member of the family (Maureen O'Donnell)
Ruth the turtle has been a treasured member of the Sandroff household for 35 years.
That's why the childless Wilmette couple is so worried about her.
The Gulf Coast Box Turtle went missing from her backyard pen about two weeks ago. The Sandroffs are apprehensive about the coming cold -- Ruth stays indoors when it's chilly. She's probably missing her special diet of fresh-dug earthworms, bananas, strawberries, grapes and mulberries picked from a neighbor's tree.
"That's why I'm concerned -- if somebody tries to feed her lettuce, she hates it,'' said Mary Ann Sandroff, artistic director at Wilmette's Center of Creative Dance. Howard Sandroff teaches music composition at the University of Chicago. They've put up notices in Wilmette seeking Ruth's return.
Ruth is about six inches long and four inches wide. It would have been hard for her to climb out of her pen, with its 18-inch-high fence. There's no sign of digging her way to freedom. The Sandroffs don't believe anybody would take her.
A month ago, Ruth had another disappearance. She later was found in a neighbor's yard. The Sandroffs suspect a wild animal carted her off, dropping her when it realized she wasn't an easy morsel to swallow. They're hoping she's been plopped somewhere by another critter.
The Sandroffs bought Ruth at a pet shop when they were newlyweds. She's thrived through seven U.S. presidential administrations. "Whenever I would approach to feed her, she would always come toward me and stick her head out and follow me," Mary Ann said.
Ruth is a feisty one. The Sandroffs watched in horror when she murdered Ezekial, her randy mate. He pestered her so much that she laid eggs constantly, Mary Ann said.
"We thought she'd like to have a boy turtle, but she sure didn't like him,'' Mary Ann said. "She reached around and tore his throat out" with her beak.
Ruth preferred an inanimate partner. "We bought her a fake turtle, and she lived with the fake turtle and she moved him around all the time,'' Mary Ann said. "So she was kind of a spinster lady, but she did like the company of the plastic turtle."
Her 10- by 4-foot pen has a brick house, pool and a log for sunning. Once, she had pneumonia. "She went on a little dialysis program at the vet's. That was about $300 to get her kidneys cleaned out.''
It's not uncommon for box turtles to live to be 70, said Andy Kuhns, an ecologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey.
The Sandroffs dote on all their animals. They had a cat that lived to be 22, and all their dogs live to be about 16, Mary Ann said.
"They really loved that little turtle,'' said their veterinarian, Barry Miller.
Wilmette police have a missing turtle report on file. The Sandroffs are asking anyone who spots Ruth to call police at (847) 256-1200.
Missing: 35-year member of the family