I have loved Rodney since the first time I saw him. My family’s friend came to see us on this day. Looking down at me sitting on the couch he said “we have to return to Texas. He will need a new home. Here, you take him…” and he left. This was the beginning of our adventures together, Rodney and Me.
-oOo-
When I first met Barbara, I thought, how strange she looks. She’s so different from my other family. She’s like me. She’s dark. She said she had forgotten to ask what my name was before they left to return to their home in Texas. So she decided to call me by my previous family’s name.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Rodney J. Honeycutt. JJ for short, or Rodney. Barbara told me my namesake is famous! And that like him, one day I would be too.
My Barbara has lots of names she calls me. Also known as nicknames, she also calls me; JJ, Mr. Smiley, or Pookie… She has so many names for me, it’s hard to keep up. Poopoo Poopoo, this is the name I hate most and she uses it often! She calls me that because Dr. Harry says I smell. But Barbara says that everybody has a smell sometimes. When she talks to me about it, she will often yell at the top of her voice; NO, DR. HARRY. MY RODNEY DOES NOT STINK! … very often … Who is this Dr. Harry who makes her so annoyed?
In the world of science I am known as Chelodina longicollis. Barbara says this is my scientific name. I am also called; Eastern Long-neck Turtle or Snake-neck Turtle, because I bend my head and neck sideways into my shell. Whereas other turtles pull their head straight back into their shell. This is called retraction. And because I can live in waterways or on land, I am sometimes referred to as a Terrapin.
