PSA: Tortoise Baby Shower today!

The nice people at Usery Mountain Regional Park (where my Tortoise Mom and Dad got married BTW), are having a "baby shower" tonight for two new baby tortoises. This should be fun as hatchlings are just so darn CUTE! Anyway the rangers are teaching about what to do if you find a tortoise in the wild (don't pick it up or it could die of dehydration after emptying its bladder in fear!), how they survive in the desert, and why they are a protected species, plus other fun activities.

Then they'll have a baby naming contest. How fun!! I got my glamorous name from someone I don't remember, back when I was a hatchling (they drilled a hole in my shell to chain me up too, very painful and cruel, but I guess they didn't know they were hurting me). My Tortoise Mom named Tortellini. It's a pretty good name, don't you think? Anyway here's the scoop on the baby shower. http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/usery/EventsDetailPublishers.aspx?EventID=17542

I wish I could go, NOT! That's a very long car ride for me, especially when I'd rather be tucked in my burrow for the evening. Early to bed, early to rise means I can get a big drink in the sprinklers while I'm grazing in the morning. Mmmmm, good! Also my Tortoise Mom has been making me breakfast and serving it in my pen when I'm through grazing for the morning. It's a great salad made of bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, shredded kale and snow peas, with strawberry leaves for garnish. The best part is since she started shredding it to compensate for my weak jaw muscles, I've joined the Clean Plate Club!



But even though my tortoise salad is so delicious, I still try to avoid going back in my pen as you know how I love the old burrow. So I always hunker down and try to look innocent when she catches me heading for the old burrow when I'm through grazing. Once when I got caught in mid-step, I dropped down and gave her my "Rats!" look. Did you know a tortoise could be so expressive? If you pay attention, you'll see.

Anyway since my Tortoise Mom started "walking" me every morning so I can graze and do my tortoise business, I'm feeling perky and I even get a little feisty around Tortellini. If this keeps up, I'll make it back to the old burrow before my Tortoise Mom can catch me. I have lots of strategies. Yesterday, I casually worked my way by hiding between the house and hibiscus shrubs, hoping she wouldn't catch me. She did. Today I didn't get even that far when she nabbed me. Curses, foiled again!! But never underestimate a very determined tortoise. Maybe they'll name one of those baby tortoises Houdini? He was pretty good at escaping right before your eyes!

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm wishing that for my very own Tortoise Mom who went out in the rain and got soaked so I could get a giant drink of rainwater on Wednesday. Wow, I thought I'd miss out because there's no good place to collect rainwater in my little pen, so I was out of the burrow looking up in the sky, just hoping I could get a refreshing drink. Rain water is not like hose water. Nooooo, rain water is primo and we haven't had much of it in more than a year, so I was really worried that I would miss out.

But then my Tortoise Mom magically appeared to "walk" me outside the pen, where I could get a good drink of the world's best water, fresh from the sky. So I drank and drank and then I flushed my bladder twice, leaving two piles of urates (ok, I've been saving up again). And then I drank some more. It was like I just can't flush my bladder until I have the water I like to replace it. So I'm all fresh and frisky now. Oh, and when they weighed me the next day, I had lost 124 grams which accounts for about 4 ounces of urates plopped out on the patio. That's a lot for a dainty gal like me.

So I'm really grateful to my Tortoise Mom who has been walking me, weighing me, giving me favorite foods to build up my strength. She's recovering from her own surgery so really trying to help me avoid more surgery. We'll see what Dr. Johnson has to say about that.



I also want to wish Tortellini a Happy Mother's Day. She was a very good egg layer when my brother Charlie was still alive. Anyway there were never any baby tortoise hatchlings until Tortellini arrived on the scene 25 years ago. For a while there, it was like having an Easter egg hunt in our yard twice a year when a clutch of eggs would hatch. Over the years, my Tortoise Mom adopted out nearly three dozen baby tortoises through the Turtle and Tortoise Society. Now they have to do it through the program at Arizona Fish & Game. Anyway I think Tortellini deserves a celebration for all the baby tortoises she produced to make other families happy too. Happy Mother's Day!