I was given one of those...you know the "adopt X animal to contribute to wildlife rescue work" things? One of those for sea turtles. I had "adopted" a humpback whale when I was in high school, and a family member "adopted" an elephant for me a few years ago.
Y'all. My turtle is a ghost turtle.
It turns out the turtle I was assigned to - Discovery - died this spring. So a family member asked me if I'm going to contact someone about being assigned a different turtle.
"No. She's with the Lake Monster now. She needs to be remembered. And I'm the right person to adopt a ghost turtle."
Everyone ignores the fact that I'm slowly developing a Lake Monster cult and agrees this is peak Fizzy.
But she does deserve to be remembered! Discovery lost a flipper when she was trapped in an abandoned fishing net. They rescued her, but she was young and being trapped altered her growth and development.
Her lung development was unbalanced, and she had an air pocket in her body cavity. They couldn't operate for the air pocket because her lungs made the anesthesia not be an option. The air pocket caused bouyancy issues and she couldn't dive.
She couldn't go back to the wild, and she couldn't be adopted by an aquarium.
Discovery was a real being, and the nets took her from us. We have to be more responsible with our planet. We can't shrug things off as, "But it's okay because there are people out there cleaning things up and rescuing animals!"
That work matters, but they can't save everyone. We all have to do our part. I'm going to love this turtle and work for healthy water for all creatures.