I won't blab a whole lot, but I will point out that The Kid has been in love with turtles for as long as I can remember. At two, he became attached to a stuffed one at Ikea and carried it around the store while we shopped. We smuggled it home and Santa brought it for Christmas. "Fluffy" has been his best friend ever since. The turtle obsession continued, and he now has numerous stuffed ones and a whole collection of non-stuffed ones.
Fast forward to the past few weeks. He's been constantly nagging us about wanting a pet. The turtle thing was thrown out the window a long time ago because they're so stinkin' expensive. Options were discussed and researched in depth (by him), and then Grammy took him to the reptile show over the weekend. They came home with a Red Footed Tortoise.
Meet the new addition to our family, Daisy:
She's three years old and all kinds of sweet.
And although I refer to her as "she", we won't know if it's a boy or a girl until it's older.
There's a ton of websites with ways to identify the sex of a tortoise, but they all suggest that it isn't possible until they're at least four or five.
As of now, she has female characteristics, so we're goin' with it.
Their average lifespan is 50 years, so odds are, she'll outlive me.
Her shell is only 3-inches right now, but she'll get about 11-inches full grown.
Sooooo, we're gonna need to buy a bigger house for the turtle.
She needs a custom built tortoise table, of course!
We spent the better part of two days reading everything we could find online about her.
And the guy at the pet store where we bought all her gear was super nice and super informative.
She's been tearin' up some kale.
And LOVES tomatoes from the garden.
I needed something else to take care of like I needed a hole in my head.
But she really is super sweet.
And the kids love her.
So there ya go.
A new addition.
My sidebar has been updated to include her. :)
My grandfather had a turtle all the time I was growing up. She lived in a large glass bowl by the kitchen sink. Yertle the Turtle was her name.
ReplyDeleteGrandpa had a lot to do with this as well. :-)
ReplyDeletePretty dang cute! Love her name :0)
ReplyDeleteMy siblings and I had a turtle for several years while we were growing up. What I remember loving most about him was that he was so easy to take care of ;0)
Suzanne
That is the cutest LITTLE thing ever!!! Grandmas always cave in ;) That is nuts how long they live. Can you imagine - she'll go off to college with him and will end up being his children's pet too!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. I had a little turtle for awhile as a kid but it died. We didn't have Google. :)
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