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Does anyone have a pet tortoise?
We moved into a new build in sept 1967. The front was laid to open plan lawn but the back garden just had a path along the back of the house and up to the garage and back gates which were ranch stye fencing
So in the summer of 1968 ,after grassing over the soil and installing a washing line we often found a tortoise in the garden that had burrowed under the ranch fencing from next door
They has moved in the previous June so had sorted out their garden and bought a pet tortoise for their two children
But tort loved eating newly planted plants and then escaping to find more !
One sunny sunday daughter was in the garden and rushed in and was can I have next doors tortoise? . I was What ??
So went outside to talk to neighbours who were if she wants the tortoise then she can have it as it spends more time in your garden plus hubby isn’t happy it eats his plants and the kids have lost interest
Soo 60 plus years later i still have Harold the female Greek spur
She is Harold cos hubby named her after Harold Wilson who was prime minister then and he wasn’t a fan saying he was slow like a tort
So daughter grew up and married but Harold stayed with us as she married an army guy so not practical to take pets with her
Only in the last couple of years has she been identified as a female Greek spur but she will always be Harold
Has come out of hibernation for another year and is now wandering around the enclosed patio and eating her vegetables
She is so much family it’s a Phew every year when she wakes up from hibernation
Is now over 60 plus years old
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Viva Harold!
Soon be time for your daughter & her husband to retire and settle in a proper home for Harold's next act? :-)
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Good on yer Harold.
When my two were very little someone gave them a tortoise. He was a speedy little thing and we named him Pell Mell. Sadly when son was about 9 one of his school friends put poor Pell Mell in a deep bucket of water and by the time we found him it was too late. That particular child was a right little b....... and we have many tales of him, like when he used our dustbin like a trampoline and broke the lid or the time he ate my brother’s doughnuts but drowning the tortoise was the final straw.
Anyway, fast forward nearly 50 years and our son has replaced his pet. He and his family have just recently taken in a rescue tortoise called Terry. I don’t think son’s elderly English Bull Mastiff is too impressed but the rest of the family love him :-)
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Joonie
Daughter is now 64 and works for P&O ferries at Dover
She is on notice for redundancy /early retirement!
She has been told Harold is is my will and she gets him /her back !
She is urm really don’t know how to house and look after !
But one of the family will take care of Harold I,m sure :-D
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