I tried to put as much information about this post into the thread title, but it was pretty hard...Hopefully I get a lot of responses on this, well, both parts of it, as Nick and I are sort of stumped I guess you could say?
As most of you know, Buddy died Friday (May 28th). We gave the little guy a proper burial Saturday evening and plan on planting yellow flowers on his burial site (in my parent's yard) in his honor, as yellow was his absolute favorite color.
We are having a VERY hard time accepting his loss. We went hiking and camping at some State land over the weekend to help cheer us up. Although it did help, the first thing we both did when we got home was run over to Buddy's "spot" (where his enclosure was) in the living room, only to remember he's not there anymore...it's so hard for both of us
My first question to everyone who has ever lost a tortoise before, how long did you wait before getting another? Nick and I REALLY want another tortoise...but we aren't sure if we should wait a while and grieve Buddy's death or is it okay to "shop around" (I know that sounds terrible, I can't think of how else to word it) now?
Part two to this thread that I am looking for comments/suggestions, is should we stick with a sulcata...or should we look toward a different kind of tortoise all-together? Nick is thinking it might be better getting a different kind all-together, not that he doesn't love sullies, but they are just so delicate and hard to care for especially when they are very young and don't have a great survival rate at that age. I'm not saying we are looking for "the easy way out", as I'm sure it could possibly sound that way. We are just really afraid of getting a young sulcata again and going through the exact same thing and losing that one too Buddy had such an awesome and quirky little personality, even though he was so young. We'd like our next tortoise (whatever kind it ends up being) to have a similar personality to Buddy's-- just so friendly, personable, quirky and awesome. I know each kind of tort is unique in its own way, but I'd really like to hear your guys' suggestions on which kind(s) have the kind of friendly personalities we're looking for. (Does this sound really dumb? I'm sorry if it does)...
Let me tell you a little story...About ten years ago, when I still lived with my parents, we had a tiny little blue parakeet we named Charlie. For the first year we had Charlie, we kept him in a part of house there was little to no foot-traffic as well as minimal human voices (since we never hung out in that room). One day my mom happened to find Charlie face-down in his food dish, not moving, just acting very down in the dumps. This is very unlike parakeets, as they are usually super skittish and flighty. My mom figured it out that since he was getting talked to very minimally, if ever, that poor little Charlie was suffering from depression. She then moved his cage into the far corner of the kitchen, where there is the most amount of human conversation, laughs, noise from the telephone, etc. I would talk to him everyday from that point forward, in a high squeaky voice, and I kid you not, three weeks later, he began to talk...and sounded JUST LIKE me! He'd say things like "Charlie Barley baby bird...c'mere! Whattaya doin' doin' doin'??" And then I'd say to him, "I love you", to which he would reply, "Do you?!" And he'd mimmick all of our laughs, it was incredible. Anyways, Charlie talked and talked and was the cutest little parakeet I'd ever seen (even to this day!), but he succumbed to old age, as parakeets don't really have a super long life span. A week after Charlie died, I rushed out to the pet store and bought a new parakeet, hoping it would ease the pain of losing Charlie (I was as heartbroken over Charlie as I am right now, still, over Buddy...). The new parakeet wasn't blue like Charlie, but rather, a bright green. I named him Magoo. Although I do love Magoo to pieces, he doesn't talk and probably never will, even though he's in the same lively spot in the house that Charlie was...I guess what I'm trying to say here is, I thought that getting another parakeet would make me feel better about losing Charlie, and it didn't...and Magoo is nothing like Charlie, personality-wise. I know that all pets are different, of course, that's nature...but Buddy's personality was soo likeable and adorable, we just want our next tort to be along the same lines. Does that make sense?
Okay...now that I've rambled a LOT, I look forward to everyone's input on this!
We thank you all in advance!
As most of you know, Buddy died Friday (May 28th). We gave the little guy a proper burial Saturday evening and plan on planting yellow flowers on his burial site (in my parent's yard) in his honor, as yellow was his absolute favorite color.
We are having a VERY hard time accepting his loss. We went hiking and camping at some State land over the weekend to help cheer us up. Although it did help, the first thing we both did when we got home was run over to Buddy's "spot" (where his enclosure was) in the living room, only to remember he's not there anymore...it's so hard for both of us
My first question to everyone who has ever lost a tortoise before, how long did you wait before getting another? Nick and I REALLY want another tortoise...but we aren't sure if we should wait a while and grieve Buddy's death or is it okay to "shop around" (I know that sounds terrible, I can't think of how else to word it) now?
Part two to this thread that I am looking for comments/suggestions, is should we stick with a sulcata...or should we look toward a different kind of tortoise all-together? Nick is thinking it might be better getting a different kind all-together, not that he doesn't love sullies, but they are just so delicate and hard to care for especially when they are very young and don't have a great survival rate at that age. I'm not saying we are looking for "the easy way out", as I'm sure it could possibly sound that way. We are just really afraid of getting a young sulcata again and going through the exact same thing and losing that one too Buddy had such an awesome and quirky little personality, even though he was so young. We'd like our next tortoise (whatever kind it ends up being) to have a similar personality to Buddy's-- just so friendly, personable, quirky and awesome. I know each kind of tort is unique in its own way, but I'd really like to hear your guys' suggestions on which kind(s) have the kind of friendly personalities we're looking for. (Does this sound really dumb? I'm sorry if it does)...
Let me tell you a little story...About ten years ago, when I still lived with my parents, we had a tiny little blue parakeet we named Charlie. For the first year we had Charlie, we kept him in a part of house there was little to no foot-traffic as well as minimal human voices (since we never hung out in that room). One day my mom happened to find Charlie face-down in his food dish, not moving, just acting very down in the dumps. This is very unlike parakeets, as they are usually super skittish and flighty. My mom figured it out that since he was getting talked to very minimally, if ever, that poor little Charlie was suffering from depression. She then moved his cage into the far corner of the kitchen, where there is the most amount of human conversation, laughs, noise from the telephone, etc. I would talk to him everyday from that point forward, in a high squeaky voice, and I kid you not, three weeks later, he began to talk...and sounded JUST LIKE me! He'd say things like "Charlie Barley baby bird...c'mere! Whattaya doin' doin' doin'??" And then I'd say to him, "I love you", to which he would reply, "Do you?!" And he'd mimmick all of our laughs, it was incredible. Anyways, Charlie talked and talked and was the cutest little parakeet I'd ever seen (even to this day!), but he succumbed to old age, as parakeets don't really have a super long life span. A week after Charlie died, I rushed out to the pet store and bought a new parakeet, hoping it would ease the pain of losing Charlie (I was as heartbroken over Charlie as I am right now, still, over Buddy...). The new parakeet wasn't blue like Charlie, but rather, a bright green. I named him Magoo. Although I do love Magoo to pieces, he doesn't talk and probably never will, even though he's in the same lively spot in the house that Charlie was...I guess what I'm trying to say here is, I thought that getting another parakeet would make me feel better about losing Charlie, and it didn't...and Magoo is nothing like Charlie, personality-wise. I know that all pets are different, of course, that's nature...but Buddy's personality was soo likeable and adorable, we just want our next tort to be along the same lines. Does that make sense?
Okay...now that I've rambled a LOT, I look forward to everyone's input on this!
We thank you all in advance!