From the pages of her pet journal to the saved umbilical cord of her baby turtle, Marie Wu's tortoise transfixion is bigger than most, if only by a hair.

You start to see it right when you walk in the door to the 10-year-old's Kent Street home: reptile paraphernalia strewn on and around the walls in the form of framed turtle pictures and turtle tanks.

Her bureau shelves don small stuffed turtles, turtle candles, turtle bookmarks and a turtle music box, but, Wu says, she just switched bedrooms and all her turtle stuff isn't together.

The prize of the collection though, Wu's new baby Bell Hingeback turtle, rarely leaves her sight.

It all started, Wu said, when she realized through trial and error that she's allergic to animals with fur. Opting for alternative pets, Wu tried her hand at having some fish, but cleaning tanks and not being able to interact with the fish left her wanting more.

Then the shell game of finding the perfect pet finally fell into place.

On a trip to the pet store, Wu discovered a male Bell Hingeback turtle that she bought and named Speedy, a date she recorded in a "turtle journal" with the simple entry of "Speedy arrives, Feb. 8, 2000."

She bought a glass tank for the turtle to stay in and was happy with the new pet, but soon she found that the turtle needed some company.

"Male turtles don't do well by themselves," Wu said. "They get lonely."

So Speedy was introduced to another new turtle-Skippy.

One thing led to another, and then one day Wu walked in on Skippy trying to bury some eggs that were about twice the size of peanut M&Ms. Wu grabbed the eggs and hoped that she would soon get another new pet.

The odds were against her, however, as a veterinarian told her that it was very hard to hatch a Hingeback and keep it alive.

"I couldn't stop hoping," Wu said. "At six months they still hadn't hatched and I thought 'Ok, they are duds.' But about two weeks later this one came out."

This one is named Baby, and now, two months after its birth, the tiny turtle is still thriving. Eating watermelon- while Wu shows off the turtle's tiny umbilical cord that she keeps in a glass container- the 10-gram turtle has doubled its size since June. But still no longer than an inch-and-a-half, the turtle is still the perfect pocket-sized pet for Wu, who takes it everywhere.

Now Wu's trying to housebreak the baby turtle, and in the process she might be taking the first step towards a career.

"When I was younger I wanted to be a turtle breeder, but I already am that," Wu said. "I want to be a zoologist."

Brock Parker can be reached at bparker@cnc.com.