We have a tortoise!

We have a desert tortoise living with us! She arrived today and was installed in our new tortoise pen.

She is of course a foster tortoise, and will only be with us a few weeks, probably, until someone else adopts her. So I am trying not to get too attached.

Of course, I am already too attached.

When we put her in the pen she walked all around it, examining her new digs. We gave her some leaves off various trees and the grape vine, but she ignored them, preferring to snack on the baby mustard plants growing in the pen, and also some old dry leaves. Crunch crunch crunch, old dry leaves -- delicious!



When the babies got home from daycare we took them out to meet the tortoise and they almost lost their minds. Their word for her species has evolved: now it's something like "tee-tole." It was so amazing to them that a tee-tole was in their backyard that they couldn't stop screaming. Fortunately the tee-tole did not seem to mind, and in fact seemed pleased to meet them. I can't imagine why.

I managed to keep them out of her pen, but just barely. Obviously this is going to be a challenge. However, she's a smart tee-tole -- when they poked at her with a toy frog she just pulled her head in, much to their surprise.

After dinner Daddy sawed a board to close off our second tortoise pen, so we may get a second foster tortoise soon. Then I'll have to think about where to put a third pen. And that might be it for the moment. Or maybe we'll build a fourth pen and a fifth. I'll see how it goes.

Around 7 pm the tee-tole went into a corner and pulled in her head. "See, the tortoise is going nighty-night," I told the boys. "Let's all of us go nighty-night too, and then in the morning we can play with the tortoise some more."



A home with a desert tortoise is a happy home.