The Story of Oscar Lim

Friday, May 06, 2005

Just heard on the radio that today's weather forecast will be that it's RAINING THE WHOLE DAMN DAY. What a great way to start the weekend.

I think one of those songs that everyone could enjoy listening is the song Collide by Howie Day.

"Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide"

Anyone has the song?

I think I will do a favour for everyone who reads my blog. I will (do my best) not to talk about LOTR but instead, everything will be centred back on my beloved animals.

I want to talk about Oscar today. Oscar is my terrapin that I had kept since.... I think Sec 3 or 4. Given to me by my buddy Manfred as Oscar was fighting with his two smaller terrapins (that are currently residing in some pond at some temple already).




There. I think my animals have a thing or two with posing in front of the camera.

I remembered Manfred passed Oscar to me in a plastic bag. I think its a Mei Zhen Xiang BBQ Pork plastic bag. LOL! And then the at-that-time nameless Terrapin was thrashing wildly about trying to get out. There was a small little water bowl placed at a corner of the plastic bag for it but in his wild thrashings he overturned and the whole bag was wet and stuffs like that.

I put my hand into the bag to pick him up and the bugger scratched me quite badly. Terrapin's nails HURT, although it doesn't bleed but it HURTS.

A few days later, I bestowed him the name, Oscar. I don't know why either but the name just got stuck in my head. Oscar was also the name of my aunt's dog. A horribly overgrown Shih Tzu.

I loved Oscar as much as... a person... can ever love their own terrapin. Hehehe. There were a few occassion that I felt very guilty towards Oscar.

Occasion #1:

I keep Oscar in my toilet. Let him roam around the whole place as he wish. Beats being better than staying in a container right? Of course every once a day I throw him into a very shallow container with water and food. Once he tires of the water, he would climb out of it himself and resume his roaming-in-toilet lifestyle.

But one day when I was away in school, the maid forgot to close the toilet door after washing it. And on my part, I forgot to close my room door. I came home, unable to find Oscar.

You could say he had roamed out of his boundaries. It was really difficult to find him. He could be anywhere. Somewhere in my room wedged between the cupboards or something. I concluded that he must have walked out of my room... Which is not good.

Right outside my room is a little balcony that goes right to the staircase. Oscar definitely would not be smart enough to take the stairs. He must have taken the short-cut. I was right. He had fallen all the way from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor. I ran down the stairs, walked to the area under the balcony and found him hiding under the table contentedly thinking that the rest of the world will not find him there.

It took me a total of one and a half hour to find him finally after moving ever piece of cupboardy furniture away from the wall to see whether he was stuck there.

Very relieved I was. Damn, am I talking like Yoda?

Occasion #2:

This occasion led me to keep him in a container from that day onwards.

I mentioned just now that I keep him in the toilet right? Apparently, Oscar also developed a bad habit. He loves sleeping in the dark. Since the light is almost always on in the toilet that me and my brother share, he was robbed of his precious darkness.

He started hiding under things. Sometimes after cleaning the toilet, the ScotchBrite cloth was not hung back properly, so it landed on the floor. Oscar crawled towards it and using his front claws, he tried to cover the Scotchbrite over his head. Amusing sight.

R10 came over one of those days and saw for themselves the stupid terrapin hiding his head and his two arms under the cloth with the rest of his body exposed. I have a feeling he thinks that no one can see him but he's actually right smack in the middle of the toilet.

Well at least he was in the middle and visible for all to see. But one day our laundry basket was 'missing'. As a bad habit, my brother and I threw our clothes at the same corner where the basket used to be, causing the clothes to land on the floor.

Guess what man... Oscar must have happily crawled towards the bunch of clothes and hid beneath it to enjoy a good dark slumber. When I came home from school, I couldn't find Oscar (again for like the hundredth time or so?). Panic ensued.

I thought for 5 minutes. Doors was closed. There was no way he could walk out. Unless he had walked out and THEN someone closed the door.

I checked the usual places, moved the usual furniture he always hides at. No sign of him. And then it hit me. Real hard. Laundry basket.

The clothes that my bro and I had strewn on the floor were missing. Evidently the maid had cleared it and it was in the washing machine.

YES. THE WASHING MACHINE FOR FUG'S SAKE!

I almost flung myself down the steps in order to rush down. Too late. as I neared the kitchen I could already hear the rumbling sounds that could only come from our washing machine.

I pulled open the top cover. Oscar was swimming among the clothes but at least he was not dead and had not drowned or something. In fact, from my point of view he looked quite happy to be swimming amidst so much water. When I prised open the washing machine's top cover, he lifted up his head and stared at me. I could almost see question marks floating around his head.

"Oh my gawd.." I muttered under my breath. Hurriedly I picked him up and dashed back to my room to give him a warm meal and wash the detergent off of him. But his appetite was very affected by the ordeal and he did not eat anything for the next few days. He refused to open his eyes for the next two days no thanks to the detergent. I had kept turtles before and I know of many illness that attacks a terrapin's eyes, causing them to be blind first, and then slowly starve to their death since they could see where their food is.

But finally he decided to open his eyes and started eating like there is no tomorrow. I think after the incident he kind of ballooned up. You could see his shell was having a hard time trying to contain his body inside it. He started looking like some overstuffed hamburger.

After which I bought Big Bottle and Small Bottle to accompany him. I can now gladly say that with those two bottle-nosed turtles fighting with him for food, he has now grown considerably agile and MUCH thinner.

And that, my dear friends, is the story of Oscar Lim. Actually, MORE like How Oscar Lim ended up in a tub. Thank you.

CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 1:39 pm