Yummy the Turtle

Meet Yummy the Turtle and T-Man. This photo was taken in 1996 when T-Man was 11 years old and Yummy was, well, a baby turtle.

T-Man is now 25, and the techie guy who takes care of all web/computer/techie things on The Yummy Life blog. He is my son and Yummy the Turtle was one of my first grandturtles. There have been several grandturtles through the years; but cute, baby Yummy was a favorite. I've always loved his name. Who can resist smiling at the mere thought of a baby turtle named Yummy. Can't get any cuter than that. Unless it's that little boy holding Yummy.  He's pretty darn cute, too.

Yummy was the inspiration for the title of The Yummy Life blog website. He didn't live with us very long. Yummy was given to Tyler by one of his friends. Yummy had been found in the wild, and that made it illegal for us to keep him. There are good reasons for that. Turtles in the wild are more likely to thrive and live a yummy life of their own if they are left in their natural surroundings. So, young T-Man learned a life lesson with Yummy; it was hard for him to take Yummy back and return him to his wild home. But, it was the right (and legal) thing to do so that Yummy could live a good life.

Numerous stories were told about Yummy as we all imagined together how happy Yummy must have been to go home and be reunited with his turtle family. We'll never know if that actually happened (do baby turtles even live near their families?), but it was a way for a little boy to cope with giving up a beloved baby turtle.  We all dreamed together of The Yummy Life that he was living.

So, Yummy the Turtle stories are part of our family history. T-Man's love of turtles has never diminished. In fact, he has a pet turtle today.

This is 25-year-old T-Man with his pet turtle, Menelaus. Say what? If you're wondering where this name came from--not nearly as cute as Yummy, if you ask me--it's a name from Greek mythology. Menelaus is a Greek tortoise (obtained legally at a pet store this time), so Tyler thought this was an appropriate name. I think it's kind of a weird name (sorry T-Man), but King-Man thinks it is a fantastic name. Go figure.

Anyway, that's how Yummy took on a double meaning for our family and now for the name of this blog. Yummy was a turtle and also a metaphor for living a good and full life. So there you have it. The Yummy Life.

Have you had any pets or grandpets with a special name or story for your family? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

By the way, Tyler not only took care of the techie part of this website, he also did all of the graphic design and created the logo.  It sure is fun for this mom to have a son with the talent to be a part of this and the creativity to make all of the pieces fit together. So we're a mother/son team. T-Man takes care of the techie and design stuff; I do the cooking, writing, and photography. Hope you enjoy the results.

Make it a Yummy day!