Close call

This morning was a bit cooler so I was sitting under the little leaf cordia when I heard my tortoise mom talking to me. I was hoping she had lots of desert willow flowers for me, so I was in kind of a hurry to get my breakfast. Anyway I took the shortest route, which meant climbing up and then sliding down the side of the new burrow. All of a sudden, I let out a hiss as I flipped over on my back and slid down the bank, under the branches of the cordia. My tortoise mom heard me, so I got rescued right away. It was a little scary but I forgot about it as soon as I saw the flowers she had for me.

(Actual accident scene in upper left of photo)


But this explains why my tortoise dad found Tortellini in almost the same place a few weeks ago. She had been struggling upside down for a little while and was very stressed and upset. No one could figure out what had happened to her, but now we know that the side of the new burrow is too steep so we can flip ourselves over easily. So our tortoise dad will fix it today.

Tortoises are excellent climbers and thrive in rocky hillsides. But going downhill is always harder, and it is easy to flip over when places are too steep. So you have to look at the yard with a tortoise-eye view. That burrow mound didn't look too steep until I veered off to the side and then it turned into a dangerous situation in a hurry. We can't survive for very long when we are flipped upside down. If the sun doesn't overheat and kill us in a hurry, then the stress of carrying all our weight directly on our lungs will do it for sure.

Whew, that was a close call. Now both Tortellini and I have been rescued from the same place for the same reason. Thanks for tortoise-proofing the yard for us, Tortoise Dad, so we won't have any more life-threatening accidents. These things can happen so easily. It's a good thing my mind quickly switched to eating flowers or I could have PTSD. Ok, back to thinking about delicious flowers... (shudder)

Adios, August!

After surviving the hottest August on record (seriously), we awoke this morning to just enough rain to leave dark splotches on our dusty shells. But it was cloudy for a change, so I could venture out from under the Little Leaf Cordia to graze on grass and hope some flowers would magically fall from the desert willow tree. They finally did, but only because my tortoise mom picked them for me. For some reason, the desert willow tree with darker pink flowers doesn't produce as many flowers as the lighter pink variety, and they don't drop on the ground either. They just shrivel up, still stuck on the tree. So my tortoise dad planted this new tree for me in 2009 after I had my surgery, but now my tortoise mom has to pick the flowers. It's not the automatic tortoise feeder like the old tree, but at least it still puts on flowers. The Mexican Evening Primrose and verbena finally fried up in this "excessive heat," and other plants are burned and brown. August didn't used to be like this here. It rained every afternoon and it cooled off at night. Not any more!

My tortoise mom tried to soak me while I was busy eating flowers under the desert willow this morning. The drip emitters were watering the tree and she added a slow running hose in hopes I'd soak a little without putting up a fuss. Let's face it, she was hoping I wouldn't notice that my cloaka was taking in water, the most direct route to my bladder. But the water wasn't deep enough, and really, I'm not tolerating that soaking business even if it is in a tree well instead of my blue soaking pan. I have my standards!



My weight goes up and down depending on whether I've had a good drink and/or "expressed" my bladder, which means flushing out the urates that cause bladder stones along with urine. So on Monday, another 116 degree day, my tortoise mom was alarmed that my weight had dropped to 3120 grams, a new low for the summer. She was really afraid the heat was hurting me. But bright and early on Tuesday, I let her know I wanted a drink from the hose, and I really tanked up. When she weighed me, I was at 3303 grams. That's only a few ounces, but it shows that things are moving in and out as they should.

Anyway I happily drank from the hose, with my face in the water. Oooh, so cool and refreshing! Did you know that tortoises don't drink standing water? We need fresh, running water. So that's why not having rain all summer with this record heat has really been so hard. If we ever do get rain, we will be so happy! Tortellini and I always know when it's going to rain ahead of time, and we sniff the ground looking for rain water. I hope that happens before hibernation. We only have a few more weeks to really tank up for winter. By early October we stop eating so that our digestive systems will be empty during hibernation. We don't want any undigested food sitting around all winter!