Urgent Care for Theona: A Classroom Superhero

After encouragement from colleagues and friends, who know the special magic that this turtle brings to many, especially children, I am making a gofundme for a turtle... yes, a turtle.

Let me explain, she is a very special turtle who thinks she is a puppy, eager for attention, and energetically greets anyone who she thinks may possibly give her attention. An upset child walks in the room, and she immediately greets them at the edge of her tank, splashing and showing eager energy to greet her friend. Immediate smiles! She turns tears to smiles and calms dysregulated nervous systems with her magic. She teaches children about their Prefrontal Cortex (Thinking Brain) and students relate to her defense mechanisms. This turtle follows children around the classroom (or around the whole building with staff children who "steal" her after school on a regular basis… just listen for the joy, and you will find her). She dances if you scratch her shell toward her tail, causing lots of giggles, and she climbs right into the lap of children. She loves to be with her people and lets us know, multiple times a day, that she really wants attention and to play. She soothes and comforts some of our most vulnerable children like it is her sole purpose on this planet. Yes, she is a turtle, but she seems to know that her job is to make her humans feel better and to make them all laugh and smile.

Meet Theona, the Diamondback Terrapin that thinks she is a puppy, and who brings joy to children on the daily.

Let me back-up to when we brought home this tiny little baby turtle- When our oldest son was in our home as a foster placement, our secret/safe word was "turtle." During visitations or social situations, if our kiddo needed an out or our closer attention, turtle was the word/signal. This escalated to toy turtles and stuffed turtles and tiny little turtle figurings... until, I researched turtles and we surprised our boy with a tiny little baby turtle for Christmas. He was well loved, but as our oldest grew and spent more time working and being with his friends, this sweet turtle was not happy! He did everything he could think of to get our attention until, I brought "him" (I'll explain the whole gender thing in a minute) to my classroom and "he" was sooo happy and my students fell in love. This was several years ago and her ability to bring joy to small humans is really special.

Theo (at the time) somehow pulled off the end piece of the filter tube in "his" tank. This resulted in "his" foot getting stuck in it and an injury. I was worried and took Theo to our veterinarian. In "his" evaluation, his foot injury was just superficial, but an egg was spotted in an x-ray... Theo became Theona! Several "exotic pet" veterinarian bills followed, and we hoped all would be well!

Unfortunately, this egg hasn't budged and is believed to be in her bladder (not quite sure how that happens) which means, at an unknown time, it will become an emergency that would likely be fatal. She will need surgery at Washington State University to remove the egg and spay her so that it will not happen again, and so she can have a happy and healthy life, for the next 25+ years, with lots more little humans!

The estimate that I was given was $600-1800 for the surgery and likely an initial evaluation of around $300 and a follow-up appointment of another $300, bringing this cost easily to exceed $2,000. After speaking with many, it would not be unusual for it to actually surpass that amount.

If more money is raised than the surgery ends up costing, all funds will be spent directly positively impacting this turtle, or her classroom human friends. I am happy to be transparent with where money is spent.

Help us save Thoeona, who isn't "just a turtle," but is a bright light to many. She brings so much joy to children, even on their hardest days.

Many children and adults, outside of my homeroom, come to visit Theona daily, because she brings them a sense of calm and a dose of joy... Theona has become a school celebrity and my heart cannot let anything happen to her, but, while it is so hard for me to ask for help, our family has had a lot of personal circumstances over the last 18 months, making this cost difficult to navigate in a hurry.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our Theona and considering helping me save her, because if a turtle could, I know she would save us, too! Maybe, she already has.

Please share this with any animal lovers you know :)