Tortalitza the Tortoise

Tortalitza  out of hibernation.

The weather is getting warmer and signs of spring are abundant. Almond trees are blossoming and my daffodils have bloomed. Another sign that it's getting warmer is that we can now find our tortoise "Tortalitza" roaming around the garden. She's come out of hibernation and is now ready to eat my lettuces once again. Whenever I plant any variety of lettuce she prefers it to the other green plants or weeds that I'm not growing to eat.  Izabella is so happy spending time with her tortoise and by now it seems the tortoise is happy to see her. Foti has a tortoise named "Skorouli" but he's a little more evasive and difficult to find. Maybe he's still hibernating, hopefully we'll find him soon because the property needs to be tilled. 

Izabella took her to visit the neighbors & she peeks from her temporary confines. I do think she's adorable. 

Tortalitza is a Spur-thighed/Greek tortoise. You can find tortoises wandering the countryside and often stopping traffic. We don't take special care of her since we let her live in a natural environment in our garden. Although, we do make sure that there's always water available and that she's locked safely in her portion of the garden. If she wanders away from her enclosed space, Tarzan gets a hold of her and chews on her shell as well as tosses her around like a ball. We found Tarzan with her last year and he seriously damaged her shell. You can see the damage that he incurred in the first photo. She's healed well and again, we need to keep her out of his reach. 

Izabellae enjoys Tortalitza's company

Our weather forecast for the weekend is fantastic (15 C/59 F) and we're planning to spend most of our time outside and Izabella will most definitely be enjoying the company of her tortoise. There's a lot to look forward to. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

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"Tortalitza" the tortoise

"Tortalitza" the tortoise

Here it is..."Tortalitza"...that's the name of our newest resident. If you would have told me two years ago- that my oldest daughter would become the princess of all things reptile in Greece; I would've never imagined it. Tortalitza arrived last Sunday. Iza is thrilled and actually obsessed with her new friend. Although the chosen name sounds feminine, the gender of our little friend has yet to be confirmed.

Foti was interested in the tortoise shortly after it's arrival but could care less about it now. Alexandra loves it. She points at it and screams, "toi toi"! (how cute is that?) I didn't really mind its presence at first but then I read up on how to care for it. First things first...everyone and I mean everyone... told me to feed it grapes and apples. Wrong! I read that fruit should only be given to the tortoise as a rare treat as it may cause the thing to have diarrhea. Not on my balcony! So, I snatched the apples and grapes that had already been provided. I'm going to pat myself on the back here because I knew better and put some romaine lettuce out for it, not fruit. I have some tortoise knowledge tucked away up in that mushy brain of mine. As I looked for information about it I discovered that it's a Spur-Thighed or Greek tortoise. It was difficult researching it though, because most of the information regarding care is directed toward people that purchase these tortoises at pet stores. This tortoise was picked up from of my mother-in-law's, aunt's farm. Hence, it was wild. It was moved from one outside location to another and I have no intention of having this little reptile join us in the house in an enclosed environment. We have it confined in our garden for now and there's plenty of greens for it to eat.

Gigi doesn't like Tortalitza at all. She barks and barks...and barks at it. Although I've locked her out of the garden, she's managed to wiggle her way through a hole in the gate. I heard her barking for about 10 minutes the other day so I went outside to see what was going on. She was digging a hole in front of it and barking incessantly. So, I picked up the tortoise so that Gigi would follow me. I tricked her out of the garden. It was difficult handling the tortoise because its hind legs would jet out and scratch my hands. As soon as I passed the gate I took a step back, put the tortoise down and slammed the gate shut. So, I went back into the house and within 5 minutes Gigi was at it again. I built a barricade in front of the gate. It's now blocked by a huge wooden case and a small barrel. Going into the garden won't be easy anymore. I'll have to make a new enclosure before the spinach and romaine start to grow.


So, now we have a tortoise.


On a positive note-receiving this tortoise helped me persuade Iza to donate the Balkan Green Lizard to her classroom. She's donated a toad, a lizard and a walking stick kind of bug. She really wanted to keep the lizard. So let's see -lizard or tortoise? I'll take the tortoise!


One more thing...and I'm not joking....she found a snake in our empty pool this afternoon (only in my life -right?) I took pictures but I haven't uploaded them yet. I had to convince her that this creature could actually be dangerous but she kept insisting that she wanted it. Now she understands that it could possibly harm her so she's stopped begging for me to catch it. The snake is still in the pool. I have to muster up the courage to help it out.

I'm submitting the photo of Tortalitza to the Camera Critters meme. I guess that there's never a shortage of critters around here. :)