Seventeen turtles. Why seventeen? Why turtles? As strange as having seventeen turtles seems, this has become normal to me.

It all started four years ago when I received my first turtle. Over the next year I continued to find turtles in my backyard and in the creek. As my bale of turtles increased, I began to wonder how I could use my turtles. The answer came in the form of ninth grade science fair. The topic for my project became obvious when my grandma alerted me of the fact that turtles carry the bacteria that causes Salmonella. By this time I had both aquatic and terrestrial turtles. I decided to determine whether one type of turtle carried more bacteria than the other. To test this idea I used sterile swabs to transfer bacteria from the legs of the turtles to petri dishes. After several days in the incubator, the petri dishes were riddled with bacteria colonies; however, one group stood out from the rest. This group which contained approximately twice as many colonies as the other was from the terrestrial turtles.

As the space these bacteria-filled turtles occupied increased my mom wanted me to move them to a new location. Around this time, I had also become heavily involved with our school’s FFA and agricultural science program. Behind our greenhouse, I discovered an area that would be ideal for a turtle habitat. With much encouragement from Ms. Crown, my teacher and FFA advisor, I designed a habitat which would fit in the allotted area. After researching more about turtle behavior such as how deep they can burrow, I decided on a design which was composed of a chicken-wire-lined, two feet deep hole which would be filled with wood chips. The area was then fenced in and a moveable roof was placed on top to prevent flooding from the rain.

This year, I have also moved my aquatic turtles to a large aquarium in the agricultural science room. One day, as I cleaned the aquarium, I realized there was a high concentration of excrements on the bottom. After seeing this, I began to wonder if the excrements could be used as a fertilizer rather than wasting it. To do so, I collected the excrements in a large bucket and planted one hundred sunflowers in the greenhouse. Half of the sunflowers received water which contained the collected excrements. The other half received water without excrements. After a month and many measurements, the results revealed that the excrements were a very effective fertilizer.

As the last four years have passed, I have concluded that this passion for turtles has made me who I am. Without the turtles I would not be as involved in FFA or have had the science experience that has given me a taste of the veterinary field which has made me even more excited to continue on the path of life and become a veterinarian.