Romeo the turtle has vanished and hundreds of Bertha Kennedy students and alumni are heart-broken.
While stories about lost pets typically don't get much ink, a co-ordinated letter writing campaign by the school's Grade 3 students resulted in 31 letters to the editor seeking Romeo's return.
"Every kid in that school respects and reveres that turtle," said Romeo's owner and Grade 3 teacher Lesley Kazakoff. "We honestly don't know where he went."
Romeo, a woodland box turtle, lived in Kazakoff's classroom for 12 years, and before that spent a few years at Neil M. Ross. He hibernates in the winter and the kids take him outside in the summer, where he scurries around in the grass. Over the summer break, children take Romeo home to care for him and keep a journal entitled "Romeo's Summer Adventures."
"He's not affectionate but when the kids are there, he's out and watching," Kazakoff said.
Vanished
The kids had all left for Christmas break on Dec. 18 when Kazakoff went to check on Romeo. "We rarely see him come out" when he's hibernating, said Kazakoff. "We don't check on him every day."
When Kazakoff lifted the box in Romeo's aquarium, she was shocked to find he wasn't there. She called another teacher to come and look. Kazakoff spent two days pulling apart her classroom, but couldn't find him anywhere. When school resumed in January, she had no choice but to tell the students.
"There were lots of tears. Every student knows about the turtle," Kazakoff said. Romeo has been around so long that siblings and parents called to ask if it was true.
Kazakoff asked the students for information but learned nothing. The students put up posters and even wrote an item for the school newsletter. It's as if Romeo has simply disappeared.
"I honestly don't know where he is."
Given Romeo's size — like a grapefruit — it is impossible for him to climb out of his aquarium without tipping onto his back. All the students know Kazakoff is the only person allowed to handle him, so she doubts a student took him. While other groups such as a daycare use the school after hours, Kazakoff always keeps her classroom locked. Her only theory is that he ended up in the Kinette's food hamper on the floor beneath his aquarium, but even that seems farfetched.
"Some kids say, 'I think he died and you're telling me a story,' but I'm not lying," Kazakoff said. "If somebody would just have said, 'Here's what happened,' we could deal with that. If he's dead, we could have a burial."
Romeo has bright orange eyes and is brownish-green in colour. His most notable feature is that he is missing three claws on his left front leg. At this point, all Kazakoff and her students want to know is what happened.
"We are worried about Romeo," a student writes. "We really worked hard so we could find Romeo. I hoped [sic] somebody could find him."
