The result of what turtles do

The way turtles mate is that first the male turtle fights all the other male turtles, and whoever wins get the girl, as they say. At my house, though, we only have one male turtle and one female turtle, so Dymphna objects when G'Kwan tries to fight with her and then, um, make up. This week I heard this awful crashing sound from the kitchen, and when I went in there I found G'Kwan, who had discovered the kitchen garbage can. This can is metal with a reflective surface, and G'Kwan was bashing himself into his reflection, apparently fighting the other male he saw. I never said G'Kwan was the smart one.

This morning I also heard G'Kwan bashing into his opponent, and when I went into the kitchen I discovered Dymphna was sitting in the plastic bin filled with dirt. I strongly suspect she is laying her eggs today. I grabbed G'Kwan and took him back to the turtle area in the study, and poured a little bit of water in the bin to make it easier to dig in, then left Dymphna alone. I checked back on her at lunch and she was still there, but looked like she'd been moving around some. I'll see if there are signs of a nest (which means she buried her eggs in the soil) when I get home, and hope that G'Kwan didn't find them and eat them, like he did the first time.