Life’s Better With a Turtle: Taffy’s Story

Good News

A Monthly Feature by JESSICA MONTEZ

Everyone has a favorite animal and many can recall what made them love their favorite animal. But unlike many of us, Dennis and Donna Bartek of La Grange have decided to devote their lives to their favorite animal. For them, life is just better with a turtle.

“Our love for turtles started in 1982 when we had an older ornate box turtle walk up to our home in Togo on Hwy. 535 between Smithville and Rosanky,” said Donna. “Our oldest daughter fell in love with her so we made it a home in our yard in a tractor tire. She named him Todd, but as time went on, we discovered he was a she. We had her for 40 years and many more that friends and family brought to us, knowing we had turtles.

“They were in a big habitat in every house we lived in until we bought our home here in La Grange over 32 years ago. We had 93 ornate box turtles in our backyard that we had raised. Many friends and family members took them as pets. One year we had gone to the Texas Parks and Wildlife office in Austin to get a permit to sell some of the babies and were told we couldn’t sell any since the parents were born in Texas. If we had gotten a turtle from a different state we could’ve sold them. Legally, you’re not supposed to possess more than six ornate box turtles, but since we had them before that law came out, we were ‘grandfather claused.’” Throughout the years Dennis and Donna have met and helped many people with the amount of knowledge and care they have for turtles. “We would take our trailer camping and we had an aquarium with newborns in it, they would go with us. We never left them in the habitat if we were going to be gone for a week or so, fire ants, squirrels, birds, and you name it, would take them,” said Donna. “One day we went to Huntsville State Park with around 35 babies in a 20-gallon aquarium. And they had an exhibit for kids to see things that lived in the area like snakes, lizards, frogs and many water turtles, but no box turtles. We told the lady over the exhibit that we could give her some baby turtles for her exhibit if she wanted them and she was so happy, so we went back to our camp trailer and brought her eight babies back. For years when they would grow bigger and she wanted babies, she would just call us and ask if we had more babies, so we would drive to Huntsville to take her some babies and bring back the ones she had. We did this for two years.”

Donna remembers another time when she had a picture on her Facebook page of Todd, and a man named Jordan from Houston sent her a message if we had a female that he could have for his male.

“At the time he was working in the Houston Zoo over the reptiles and he came to our home to get a box turtle mate for his male and he ended up taking about six of them. We became good friends and he would come to visit our turtles and send his colleagues to see our turtles too,” said Donna. “He actually told us that we probably had more ornate box turtles in our backyard than the whole state of Texas did in the wild!”

The Barteks have also had the chance to see a turtle rarity. “One year we had a baby hatch out that was yellow,” said Donna. “I sent a picture to Jordan and he came to see it the next day, he had never seen a baby that color, and he had by then been all over the world helping turtles. We found out that the beautiful baby was hypomelanistic so we named her Blondie. Jordan really loved her and often came to see her from his home in Houston. We finally ended up letting him take her since she was so rare and I was scared that she might get sick or something and not make it. Blondie now lives with Jordan in Charleston, South Carolina. We get Christmas pictures and Halloween pictures of her often all dressed up!”

Not even retirement could stop the love for turtles, or in Dennis’ case, his love for wanting an African sulcata tortoise that can live for more than 150 years.

“Dennis always wanted a sulcata tortoise but I told him no, we’re retired and I want to travel more in our fifth-wheel camp trailer. But one day a long-time friend of mine sent me a picture of a baby turtle that a co-worker had found in Bastrop and asked me if I wanted it. I showed Dennis the picture and he said yes right away because it was a sulcata tortoise. When we brought him home he was about the size of two quarters and he still had the horn on his nose for him to cut his way out of a soft eggshell. We named him Tuffy, at first, but then I thought he was a girl, so we changed his name to Taffy. Then recently when he turned two years old we found out she was a he. Taffy is a boy or girl name, so Taffy it is.”

Taffy, who now weighs 24 lbs., has not stopped Bartek’s retirement dreams to travel more because now he just goes with them. In fact, he goes everywhere with them.

“When we go camping in our fifth wheel camp trailer we have all of our pets go with us,” said Donna.

The Barteks also have two chihuahuas and one huskypoo who Donna says will tolerate Taffy most of the time, until he accidentally steps on their feet.

“We always try to take Taffy to the RV park office to visit, and they’re usually very excited to have him roam around rearranging their furniture. When we’re in the campgrounds, we always take Taffy for walks to keep his stamina up. People love taking pictures of him and petting him.”

And if you are lucky enough you might even see all of them in some businesses in town. “We take our three dogs and sometimes Taffy, to other places like Tractor Supply and Sutherlands. We also sometimes will carry him into places on his custommade tortoise carrier that my husband and I made from a rug,” said Donna. “He normally will walk right in like he owns the place. I really do think he likes the attention.”

When Taffy isn’t out and about he spends most of his days in the Barteks’ backyard when the weather permits. For now, at his age, he gets taken outside to the backyard, every single day, and brought back in at night. And when it starts to become cold outside, he has to stay indoors with his heat lamps on, so right now he’s loving this weather. “We’ve become very attached to him as a loving family member so when he’s outside roaming around in the yard outside of his designated area, we really have to pay attention that he doesn’t eat rocks and/or plants that he’s not supposed to eat. We rely heavily on the internet to identify the safe plants he can eat. And he loves trying to eat stuff he isn’t supposed to,” said Donna.

Now Taffy, who will gain five to ten pounds each year and may end up weighing up to 150 pounds, eats almost two heads of romaine lettuce every day along with cut-up squash, cucumbers, cactus, bell peppers, and flowers when he has been a good boy. He also has to have a bath every other day to make sure his shell gets hydrated and help his plumbing work better.

Taking care of Taffy has its challenges, but more than challenges, the Barteks have love.

“The experts have said that it’s hard to raise turtles in captivity, but not for us. We loved every one of them,” said Donna.

And if anyone is capable of taking care of turtles, it is Donna and Dennis, because for them and their turtles slow and steady always wins the race. So remember next time you see a turtle crossing the road or in distress, stick your own neck out, because like the turtle, you need to stick your neck out of your shell to move forward.