This was the most traumatizing week of my life. All week long I was working really hard to make a new outdoor enclosure for my female tortoise, Vasili. I spent many hours and lots of money working on it. On Thursday night i had finished the project. I took her out to explore and she did what she always does. She wandered around until she found the perfect place to lay her head and took a nap. The next morning I was so excited to take her back outside. I put her out there and put the expanded metal lid on and went back in the house to feed my baby. After I fed my baby I walked to the window to check on her. And I couldn’t see her. She was very large and not the best at hiding so I started to panick. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it, a dog. I ran outside screaming. The dog ran off through the hole it made in the fence. When I ran over to Vasili most of her shell was gone. I could see her exposed heart still beating. I screamed, I sobbed and I held her for her last few minutes. I’m so deeply traumatized, angry and guilty. I was trying to better her life and now she’s dead. She died in the worst way imaginable. I loved her so much. She was my big girl with so much personality. She was so outgoing. Every time I walked up to her enclosure she would come over to me and let me pet the back of her head and hand feed her. The night before she was killed, I sat by her outdoor enclosure watching her with my baby on my lap. She ran over to us and let my baby touch her. She was fearless. And now she is gone. None of my family understands why I’m so upset. They say it was only a tortoise. To put it in perspective for them, I asked how they would feel if a wolf came into their horse pasture and savagely ripped apart their winning barrel horse. They still don’t get it. Please try not to point fingers or tear me down. I thought I was doing the right thing and I hate myself enough already.