Petrach

The turtle in the picture is a red eared slider.  It was given to us by someone no longer able to care for him. Each morning as part of my daily ritual I walk to the laboratory to turn on his sun lamp, feed him, and provide some small measure of interaction for him with the outer world. He will live this life with little variation until the end of his days.  We can't let him loose here, they are not native (see below) so the best he can hope for is a larger tank, it's on order.
I've dubbed him Petrach after Francesco Petrarca

From Wikipedia - Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism".^[1] In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio and, especially, Dante Alighieri. This would be later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. Petrarch was also known for being one of the first people to refer to the Dark Ages.

As a pet lover and someone with a respect for any living thing, I find keeping turtles most disturbing (they should not be kept as pets!)and yet each day I find myself, rain or shine, making sure the pet rock is alive and well.  I pick him up from time to time even though I'm a germaphobe and I know turtles are a breeding ground for bacteria, and yes I talk to him. Nothing heavy just sounds really, a snippet of a song or a poem that I woke up with banging around in my dreams.           

From Wikipedia - The red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is a semi-aquatic turtle belonging to the family Emydidae. It is a subspecies of pond slider. It is a native of the southern United States, but has become common in various areas of the world due to the pet trade. They are popular pets in the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Japan, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.