Remember Horatio?

Some of you have been around long enough to remember Horatio Mortimer de Juan Pablo III, the red slider turtle I had a pet for a long time.

We rescued him from Dia's pool on Labor Day, 1998. He hung out for a really long time, until he grew so big we had to put him in my parent's aquarium. He was really happy there, but my mom's expensive fish started disappearing. Tommy and my dad dug a turtle pond in the backyard, where he lived, until one day he set off to see the world, and was never seen again.

He was a good and noble turtle. Imagine my surprise when I opened the paper this morning to find out he was reproducing! Only an utterly badass turtle could father something so simultaniously adorable and awesome. After the jump, Horatio's offspring: