Harold has brought it to my attention that I have not told you much about him lately, and that his first liaison with a member of the opposite sex this year is big news. We have already seen quite a few turtles, which must be due to the warm winter and spring we’ve had, because we usually don’t see many until late June. They started showing up outside looking for the red plates with their bananas around the first of June this year, and we were caught unprepared with the red plates still in the storage box on the patio, and no bananas at hand. On her next trip to the store Lisa took care of the “Yes, we have no bananas!” situation. I got the red plastic plates out of the box and washed them, cut a banana in half, peeled them and put one piece on each plate and set them out in the feeding area.
The turtles have been most grateful and have taken advantage. So far this year, however, the only ones we had seen were males, with bright red or orange eyes, flashy markings on their heads, very colorful scales on their legs, and concave plastrons. 
No brown-eyed, flat bellied demure ladies had appeared, except maybe one I didn’t go out to check because Harold’s mommy was home, and she doesn’t like it when he has lady visitors. That changed last Sunday shortly before noon, just as we were getting ready to go out the door to meet my new grandnephews at my sister’s house.
Harold started banging around in his back window, so Lisa went to check on him and yelled to me, “There’s a turtle out there! Harold wants you to go out and check it to see if it’s a girl!” So I did, and it was. I recognized her as one of Harold’s former paramours from previous years, by a notch broken out of the right side front edge of her carapace. I brought her in and set her down on the floor. She never had drawn in and closed her shell, so she was obviously familiar with me and her surroundings. She looked around a bit, then walked over to peak through the pots at Harold. He had no idea she was there, though he did kind of look over his shoulders a bit, as if he were puzzled. Lisa asked, “Are you going to leave her in here.”
My response: “Well, yes. If you didn’t want me to, why did you tell me to go look?”
“Well…” she said. “I guess if I’m not here it will be okay. Are you sure they’ll be okay?”
“If she doesn’t flip him upside down, and he doesn’t lay there waiting for me to help him flip back over, sure.”
“Well, okay then.” And out the door we went at around 11:45.
When we got home a little after 4:00 Harold was still “waving his hands in the air like he just don’t care.” Typical turtle mating time is about three hours. And it looks rather ridiculously comical…
She must really like him. She had his toenails clamped, and she was not letting go. They were still playing leap-frog when we headed for bed. Needless to say, they slept in.
Monday morning she was sitting behind Lisa’s end table, staring at Harold’s back. He was sitting in front of the air filter intake about two feet in front of her. I picked her up and moved her to the courtyard of Harold’s Enclave, and then I prepared breakfast for her: banana, meal worms, grapes, lettuce and whole wheat bread. She just looked at it. A short while later the cats came in for their milk and kibble/Friskie’s mixed gourmet breakfast. When they encountered her they backed-off and stared. This surprised me greatly, because they are quite used to Harold, and he to them, and they get along fine. They play all around him and sit on his hut and accidentally step in his hot tub, but he doesn’t blink an eye or move an inch, unless they almost kick him in the face. Basically they leave each other alone. He does like to watch them, but preferably when they’re outside.
The kittens however did not know what to think of her. This was not their turtle! She didn’t mind them. The only time she ever pulled her head in during her entire stay was when Harold was tapping and biting at her shell while trying to woo her. She ignored the kittens. Harold finally came to life after the kittens were done eating. He came out from behind Lisa’s chair and “darted” past the open patio door, as always, went straight to his “hot tub” and jumped in. He sat for a few minutes, eyeballing his girlfriend, then lumberously crawled out slopping water everywhere, went to his north side window, plopped down, yawned, and started watching for lizards on the neighbor’s foundation blocks. He likes to watch lizards, and squirrels, and raccoons, and birds, and kittens… The lawn care guys scare him.
At any rate, it was obvious Harold’s lady friend was not hungry, Harold was tired, and Lisa said that the lady friend should be on her way before they recovered because there would be no hanky-panky or hand waving while she was there. I accordingly escorted her to the edge of the woods and set her down. After looking over her shoulder longingly at the patio door for a few moments, she went on her way. She was Harold’s very first ever “over-night guest.” I believe they both had a very nice time, and the way she was looking back at the door I expect we will see her again, soon.