Althouse: "Rockalina the eastern box turtle was captured in 1977 and forced to live on a kitchen floor for nearly 50 years. She was fed cat food and lettuce...."

May 12, 2025

"Rockalina the eastern box turtle was captured in 1977 and forced to live on a kitchen floor for nearly 50 years. She was fed cat food and lettuce...."

You may have followed the story of Rockalina on TikTok, but this YouTube version, which just went up yesterday, collects the whole story.

20 comments:

Iman said...: Rock on, Rockalina! Do the McYertle… do the Shy Tuna…

Why must you chase teh Cat?; 5/12/25, 7:38 AM
Jamie said...: "Forced to live in a kitchen floor" is a weird framing.

I feed my dog good quality kibble-style food, which she eagerly devours twice daily, because it's good for her teeth, which will extend her life (so far our vet is recommending against having her teeth cleaned because at age six she has minimal plaque). She does get the occasional real bone or piece of raw meat because it's what she's made to eat, but she has been forced to live in an air-conditioned house since we got her four and a half years ago, and so far she's not complaining, at least in any language we understand, as she's curling up between us on the sofa. I'll bet she outlives her coyote cousins out on the golf course.; 5/12/25, 7:46 AM
Iman said...: I note Rockalina’s pose on the right is akin to Sen. McYertle’s “1,000 yard stare freeze-up” in front of the microphones.

Rock on, Rockalina!; 5/12/25, 7:50 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Our box turtle in the backyard would come out and eat a cornocopia of delicious treats: tomatoes, broccoli, lettuces,, etc. It lived quite comfortably for 10 years-ish .before we lost track of it. As for the Eastern Gopher turtle, my first settler Florida ancestors (Minorcan) almost ate them out of existence as "Gopher Stew" became a regional delicacy. They are now a protected species.; 5/12/25, 7:53 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Would she make a good turtle soup? She's right there on the kitchen floor.; 5/12/25, 7:56 AM
Tom T. said...: When I was a kid, there was a box turtle that would periodically show up in our backyard. Mom or I would grab him sometimes and keep him as a pet for a few weeks. We'd keep him in an open cardboard box with a bunch of grass, and feed him mostly vegetables. After a while, we'd put him back in the backyard.

On the same topic, I saw an article recently saying that the turtles from the first Rocky movie (in 1977!) are still alive and well, in Stallone's care.; 5/12/25, 8:20 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I remember seeing box turtles in the wild. Was it in Delaware or northern New Jersey? Can't remember. But if you see one, it's tragically easy to pick it up and take it home.; 5/12/25, 9:00 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I never took home a wild turtle, but I did have a turtle that was bought in the kind of store we called the "five and ten." It had a special turtle bowl that had a little ramp in the middle up to an "island." The island had a little plastic palm tree. What a bad idea?!

The only wild animals that I brought into the house when I was a child: tadpoles, one salamander, baby rabbits, lightning bugs.; 5/12/25, 9:04 AM
Lazarus said...: If you're a turtle in a house, you're likely to be living on the floor. When we're at home and standing up, aren't we all, in a sense, living on the floor? Maybe, like kids in the 60s, Rockalina likes living on the floor but just hopes it's the floor in front of the television.; 5/12/25, 9:06 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Maybe... Rockalina likes living on the floor...."

If you watch, you'll see that her nails were badly grown out and curled around and her legs and "beak" were in terrible condition.; 5/12/25, 9:15 AM
FullMoon said...: I never took home a wild turtle, but I did have a turtle that was bought in the kind of store we called the "five and ten." It had a special turtle bowl that had a little ramp in the middle up to an "island." The island had a little plastic palm tree. ..
While Woolworth’s pet departments survived until the entire chain closed in 1997, little green turtles ceased being part of the stock in 1975, when the Food and Drug Administration banned pet stores from selling turtles smaller than four inches in length because children picked up salmonella from playing with their pets and failing to wash their hands.
Does anyone out there own a reptilian survivor from Woolworth’s? Send me a photo, and I’ll post it.
.; 5/12/25, 9:28 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: Its pretty clear that some of the previous posters didn't watch the video. Full disclosure, I skipped over quite a bit of it.

Much shorter version:
The turtle was kept under horrific conditions for a box turtle for over 50 years. It was horribly dehydrated because turtles need high humidity and it did not have access to a good source of water for drinking. It was malnourished because cat food is not formulated to provide nutrition for box turtles. Due to lack of friction its nails had grown so long that it could not walk properly and its joints were being impacted. Etc, etc, etc.

I don't understand why people do this sort of thing. Why have a dog and keep it chained or penned up all the time and not interact with it? It makes no sense, but people do it.; 5/12/25, 10:18 AM
Aggie said...: We had pet turtles for a while during my childhood too, with a little plastic tank, a ramp out of the water to a small plastic island, with a plastic palm tree even. Good fun. I do wonder why these people let that box turtle get to such a desperate condition though, that's pretty deplorable. Glad they were able to bring it back. The will to live should be so rewarded, always.; 5/12/25, 10:22 AM
kiwinews said...: Those dime store turtles were red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans). They can live over 40 years.. Many were/are released into the wild by well meaning pet owners. That's why they are on the list of 100 most invasive species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Pretty things though.; 5/12/25, 10:33 AM
Gunner said...: My turtles all died in under five years, so she must have been doing something right.; 5/12/25, 11:48 AM
Eva Marie said...: Thanks for the post. Sweet video.; 5/12/25, 12:37 PM
Tina Trent said...: 1. Don't date this guy.

2. Rockalina would last five minutes on our land. Nature is red in tooth and etc.

3. I'm not brutal. Many times I stopped on the road to Cockroach Bay to carry huge snapping turtles off the warm asphalt, though they were so large they were hard to pick up and could easily take a finger off. Lift from the back. I finally decided it was the same turtle every time. Probably seventy years old. I did consider eating her.; 5/12/25, 1:50 PM
Aaron said...: The problem with the nails is that normally they are worn away in rough terrain, but "soft life" means they can grow too long.

Humans have this problem as well. My cat, too. Its a disease of soft living.; 5/12/25, 3:35 PM
Southern Pessimist said...: I lived out in the woods many years ago and a large box turtle liked to meander around the yard quite peacefully or so it seemed to me. My cocker spaniel had a humorous interaction with him, very similar to an old Disney cartoon. I enjoyed looking for the turtle to check on him from time to time. Until one day I had my house painted and the Mexican workers took him home and ate him.; 5/12/25, 4:05 PM
gadfly said...: It is important to keep RFKJr away from Rockalina,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a lot of curious ideas about how to Make America Healthy Again. Time to add taking illicit swims in bacteria-infested creeks to the list.
On Sunday, the Department of Health and Human Services secretary posted shirtless photos of himself swimming in Washington D.C.’s Rock Creek with his grandkids for Mother’s Day. It’s a cute enough scene, except, of course for the fact that swimming is banned in Rock Creek because, according to the National Park Service, “Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health.”; 5/12/25, 7:55 PM