Garden of Eatin'

This is my favorite corner of the yard to eat. The new desert willow tree drops sticky sweet flowers that the ants love too. But the best part is I get to "vacuum" up all the white flowers from the little leaf cordia plus sit in its shade to eat the salad that my tortoise mom brings me. Dr. Johnson says I need lots of leafy greens to build muscle. Anyway I'm eating with more gusto now. Sometimes I'm so busy eating that I'm startled when my tortoise mom brings me more food. I know, I know, that's not like me to startle like that, especially because I always know her voice.



I'm a very lucky tortoise to have a yard with two burrows, plus there are no dogs or cats to flip me over or hurt me accidentally. And this yard doesn't have a pool which is really important. My brother Charlie drowned at our old yard even though the pool had a two-foot wall built all around it for tortoise safety. But one day Charlie found his way over it anyway and he drowned. We still miss him. He was quite a character and patrolled the yard endlessly and made sure any workmen knew he was in charge. But no one knew he could use a prickly pear plant like a bridge to get over that two-foot pool wall. And then, of course, tortoises and pools never ever mix. Did you know we don't have vision that tells us how deep the water is? So he probably thought he was getting a drink or something. I don't know. I just know everyone cried a lot and we still miss him. Charlie was the father of over 30 baby tortoises that were adopted out through The Tortoise Society, so we hope they are marching around supervising all that's going on in good, safe yards now. No pools. Not even a solid two-foot tall fence was good enough to save Charlie. And don't even get me started on what our dog accidentally did one time.....

Grandma (r) and brother Charlie, circa 1986


But things are ideal for tortoises in this yard: very safe with all edible plants and shrubs and even some grass. Tortellini loves to eat the grass first. She grazes just like a very short cow. Come to think of it, I'm glad there are no cows in this yard either!