Eat, Sleep, Swim

Karen Sota: Pounder, what happened?

Pounder: I’m not sure. I had lost a LOT of weight. It was a daily struggle just to move my flippers. I’m embarrassed to say I spent way too much time floating. I just couldn’t work up enough energy to dive for food. I was slowly starving.

KS: What changed all that?

P: No matter how hard I try I just can’t put my flipper on it. Did I spend too much time in a net somewhere? I mean, I could have passed out from near drowning and just don’t remember the details. Was it something I ate? I like to try new tastes, but I’m pretty careful not to gulp anything suspicious, like a balloon masquerading as a jellyfish. Maybe I swam through some toxins. I know I sound kind of vague, but I have no idea how I got sick. I wasn’t much help with my medical history.

P: I was up in Core Sound, heading for what looked like a seafood buffet; they call it a pound net. I was really hungry, and there was good stuff in there. Best of all, it was real easy to catch, because it was all penned up and couldn’t go anywhere. Well, once I got in that net I was trapped. The nice people who tended the net saw me swimming around (eating all their fish.) They were going to release me but noticed how thin I was, so they called Wendy Cluse. She works for the state and helps sea turtles in trouble. She brought me to the hospital. That was in July.

P: Sort of. I guess I had barnacles and stuff on me because there was a lot of scrubbing and scraping, and I heard somebody say “another Barnacle Bill.” I thought maybe my name was Barnacle Bill. I now know that’s what they call every turtle that comes in sick, starving and covered with barnacles and leeches. It was a great feeling to find out they knew exactly what to do to make me better.

P: After they got me all cleaned up, they gave me a series of shots (ouch!) of vitamins: A & D, C, B Complex and Iron. I got some antibiotics just in case I had an infection.  But best of all, they delivered lots and lots of food right to my tank, twice a day! I was “livin’ la vida loca!” (I heard a Kemp’s Ridley say that once.) I ate every kind of seafood I could beg from the volunteers. Even today I can usually con some extra food - you’re not going to print that, are you!? I know they still hide vitamins and calcium in my squid, but I just ignore it.

P: Eat, mostly. My blood work wasn’t good the last time it was tested. I just have to keep eating and taking my vitamins and exercising my flippers. I’ve kicked back a bit from my busy summer. I was one of the turtles on the daily tour. At first I missed all the activity, but I still get plenty of attention from the volunteers. I like to chase the net when they scoop my tank. They pretend they’re aggravated but I know they really think it’s cute. I swim lots of laps, well, circles. I’ve got a pretty good thing going here, but I really do want to go back home next June.

P: Thank you, for taking care of me, and for telling my story.