I used to live in a small apartment with my former human named, Leonard. His apartment did not have a garden nor did it have any space where I could spend time to bask under the sun. I think Leonard worked the night shift because I noticed that he was always nowhere to be found whenever I awoke in the middle of night. And whenever I woke up in the mornings, I would see him sleeping until the sun set which was also the time for me to sleep. So for the most part of my one-year-old life then as a baby sulcata tortoise, I lived in a 16”x16”x4” glass enclosure along with three other baby sulcatas. We had a UV lamp above our glass enclosure that was kept on during the daytime to serve as our artificial sunlight. This is where I mostly slept, ate my greens, pooped and weed.
Every two or three days, Leonard would let me and my shelled friends soak in a very slightly warm shallow bath where I always took the chance to drink up at least 2 days’ worth of my water reserve; This was a good time to go to the loo, too! On few occasions, when Leonard was off from work and had visitors at our apartment, he would take me and my shelled friends out of our glass enclosure and show us off to his friends. It was during one of those occasions when I first caught a glimpse of my soon-to-be human mum and dad – Liza and Jeff. As soon as Leonard set me down on the floor, Liza got sooo excited! Her gaze followed my every step. Heck! She hardly noticed the rest of Leonard’s other human friends anymore. I didn’t really mind the attention. I was flattered. But it’s not like I made an effort to look cute! What could she possibly have seen in me??
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| "It’s not like I made an effort to look cute! What could she possibly have seen in me??" |
Until one night, I suddenly woke up to the sound of a car engine and some voices. I looked up as I saw Leonard handing me and my three shelled pals inside our glass enclosure to Liza and Jeff – the couple I saw at one of Leonard’s dinner parties. I was confused. All I heard was something about Leonard and his girlfriend moving to a new apartment, and that we had to stay with our foster human parents for a month until Leonard had settled in to his new home. It was dark inside the car as we rode on our way to our new foster home. Jeff was driving, while I quietly sat inside our glass enclosure on Liza’s lap. I felt embarrassed too because Liza kept covering her nose. I worried that she might not like me because I was stinky. We finally arrived at their house. It was dark outside but I could tell that it was a much, much bigger place than where I live. When they set our glass enclosure inside the room, I noticed a baby tortoise that looked just like me, only much smaller, sleeping at a corner (I later found out that his name is Koopa. I will talk more about him at a later post). Finally, I grew tired from the confusion and worry until I slowly dozed off.
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| Me & my shelled friends eating skinned squash seeds at our foster parents' home. |
The next morning, Liza let me soak in a very slightly
warm shallow bath under the sun. I was
so thirsty so I drank my fill of water glug, glug, glug, glug, glug! As I thought to myself, “You’ll never know
when you’ll get your next drink”. It
was very refreshing! Oh and the warmth of
natural unfiltered sunlight on the back of my shell, forehead and legs while I
soaked! It was so good; it felt a hundred
times better than the heat that I got from the UV lamp back at our apartment. Liza used a toothbrush to remove the dirt from
all over my shell carapace and plastron, and it took a week of daily 10-minute
soaks and shell scrubbing before I was completely free from that stinky
smell. That’s when I realized too that I
wouldn’t have to worry about water anymore, as I now had my 10-minute soaks daily. After soaking, my human would gently wipe my
mouth, nose, feet and shell with a paper towel then set me down on the floor to
roam around. At first, I was not used to
having more than 16”x16” of space around me so I usually stayed put in my small
area of “comfort zone” even when I was allowed to graze in the garden. It was
a wonderful place! I got to walk around
the house a lot and grazed on the grass in the garden a lot. Liza gave me so much attention. She tried to
pick me up a lot and hold me close to her face.
I wasn’t used to this kind of attention so at first I always worried
that she might want to eat me! She would
always pick me up and try to give me a pat on my forehead as she looked into my
eyes and softly talked to me. I got used
to this eventually. And though I could
not comprehend her human words, the soft cooing sound of her voice comforted
me. I thought to myself, everything was
going to be okay.
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| "Oh and the warmth of natural unfiltered sunlight on the back of my shell, forehead and legs while I soaked! It was so good; it felt a hundred times better than the heat that I got from the UV lamp back at our apartment" |
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| "At first, I was not used to having more than 16”x16” of space around me so I usually stayed put in my small area of “comfort zone” even when I was allowed to graze in the garden." |
The next month came and I wondered when Leonard was coming to get me back. One day he came for my three shelled baby sulcata friends so I was left with just Koopa, my foster parents’ baby sulcata tortoise. I never saw Leonard again after that. But even though he never came back for me, I knew deep in my heart that he still loved and cared for me very much – so much so that he let me stay at my new home where he knew that I would get better attention and care from my new human parents. Thank you, Leonard, for giving me a better chance at life. You will always have a special place in my heart.-- Princess Peachy, January 2012 (some names were changed to protect the true identities of the characters in this true story)
"I was still a bit pale then during one of my 1st few morning exercises under the sun at my new parents' place."
You Might Also Want to See the First Time I Celebrate My Hatchday With My Humans in:
• Happy Hatchday to Me!
• Happy Hatchday to Me!
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