Turtles and Tortoises Among Other Things.

 Funny how animals come into your life. Right now all the ones we have are gifts or rescued from somewhere else.

Current list of Critters:

1. Darby - the dog
2. Marshmallow (cat)
3. Pumpkin (Marshmallow's sister)
4. Kitty Bumpus (the outside sort of feral cat)
   
5. Skeeter (red slider turtle)
6. Tilly (another red slider)
7. Mrs. Fuggles (African Sulcata Tortoise)
8. Various gold fish

 I must admit I do buy goldfish off and on as needed. What that means is if the visiting blue heron fills up at the "snack bar" then the number of goldfish I have in the pond goes down significantly. This year I did have a few fish that came from a friend though. Interesting how big and fat they can get in the pond. And they have actually figured out how to hide better. So I might think they are all gone and buy more only to discover that there were some left, they were just hiding. 

 The Turtles

The red sliders live in the pond with the fish of course. They have a marble slab to bask in the sun on and some sand if they feel like laying around on something softer. They also sometime sunbathe on the rocks surrounding the pond. Skeeter was the reason we got the pond functioning again.  He belonged to a friend who lived with us for a while and her little Skeeter had always lived in a terrarium. We put him in pond and he (actually she) GREW bigger. And keeps growing.

Some other friends read that we had Skeeter and asked if we wanted another red slider that someone had randomly dropped off in their yard. Of course I said yes since I figured fish were not enough company for Skeeter. So Tilly became part of the pond family. She is bigger than Skeeter and probably much older. 

The two of them used to try to get out of the pond enclosure, but now they seem pretty happy. Sunshine, fish friends, food everyday... their life is pretty good. 

The Tortoise

Mrs. Fuggles wandered into a yard down the street from us. The people called me up and said hey we think we have your turtle (I had a box turtle that had disappeared several years earlier). Assignment - look up box turtles and look up African Sulcata tortoises. Quite a size difference. But hey, they had never seen my box turtle, so they were guessing. Needless to say - we went down to look at what we thought would be a turtle about 8 inches long, and came home with a tortoise that was probably 16-18 inches long... That was in 2009. So we have had her for 12 years so far. I will have to measure her. I know I can't pick her up any more as she weighs too much.

We had a shadehouse with a fence around it, so that was where we put her. After she had been here about 3 months or so, another neighbor mentioned that the people living next to him had a tortoise that was missing ... I went over to tell them that I assumed the one at my house was theirs. They were taking care of it for a friend. Hadn't even noticed it was gone that long. They came over to look at it two times. Then they moved away. So I am guessing that after this many years, the tortoise is mine - for now anyway. They live a long time. So she will be here after I am gone. We are not sure how old she is. Maybe around 20.  The people who were watching her for someone else said she was 3-5 years old back then. 

In the winter we would put her in the garage at night to keep her warm. When she managed to open the garage refrigerator we figured it was time to build her a house in her garden paradise and leave her out there year round. Her little house is heated for winter cold. And she has dug herself a long tunnel underground that she goes into when it is hot in the summer. To make sure she had plenty of room, I kept making the fenced in area larger. We finally decided her yard was big enough and made it look pretty. As long as I keep the romaine lettuce, corn, watermelon and other delicious greens coming, she is pretty happy.

In case you wondered, Fuggles is a type of English hops. I just liked the name. It sounded sort of earthy.