NolaBillie
New Member
Get yourself a cup of tea. I'm not kidding about the "Saga" label.
Scratchy came into our home in January.
My son wanted a tortoise. He's a sensitive kid, likes animals that are kinda chill by themselves - birds and turtles, not cats or dogs. So he saved up for months, $1 at a time, switching the toy he was saving for several times until he decided he wanted a pet. After a little research I decided a red foot would be a good match for our house side and climate. I kept an iguana and anoles when I was a kid, so I knew some basic reptile husbandry (I'm under no illusion that my 6 year old will actually be caring for his pet
.) When he hit $100, I told him I would cover the rest.
We bought him at the local reptile shop in December, and let them hold him until we got back from holiday travel (which was really hard, because I could tell he was being kept too dry, in of course a tiny enclosure). Here he* is, before I figured out to feed him on a stone.
What are you looking at?
Typical hatchling, he was doing well. I let him have outside time usually every day in the spring (we live in New Orleans - imagine little post-stamp gardens for your lawn). Of course, this was healthy, and my ultimate undoing. On Easter, I went to check on him after about 30 minutes and - you guessed it - GONE.
After frantic looking and rending of clothes, we put up flyers around the neighborhood and knocked on doors. People thought we were nuts. A few days later I decided to try my hand at urban trapping.
The prototype was usually disturbed in the mornings. One morning, totally F'ed up.
I began by setting out bits of banana peel between the houses, which usually got messed with in the night. Then I built a trap out of cardboard, loading it with banana/green mixes usually. One night it got totally clobbered, nothing Scratchy could've done. At this point I had crawled under the house, looked under our neighbors too (we have raised houses here, about 3' off the soil).
my husband and son testing out the real deal I made of wood.
The wooden trap worked, but also got upended one night. I suspect a mean raccoon that lives a block away. At this point, weeks had gone by and I gave into despair. We eventually got a new tortoise in mid May.
Uno.
Uno was a little tiny guy from the same pet shop. He was more skittish, less of an appetite than Scratchy. In the months since Scratchy's escape, I built a bullet-proof outdoor enclosure.
*not pictured, wooden/chicken wire top piece to discourage any rogue hawks.
I dug down every side several inches, putting barriers beneath what you can see. The back barrier is about 5" deep.
-Four months later -
In July, I got this in my mailbox:
Would you look at the quality of this flyer?! Chris is awesome.
OMG, you can imagine my screams of joy! Turns out Chris lives two yards away from us. Scratchy was so great, he didn't want to part with him. It was a miracle.
Not pictured, my crazy happy face.
I celebrated so loudly when I read the flyer my three year-old daughter started to cry!
Life is good. Scratchy and Uno, together.
Scratchy had become quite a fatty in his rambling time. I couldn't believe how much he'd grown. And his appetite!! It was amazing.
But here's where the story darkens again. We left the torts with a family while we went camping for a few weeks in August (with a multi-page instructional sheet). When I picked up our lovely tort family, Uno looked TERRIBLE. I got him into a great herp. vet, but the outlook was grim. After a week in her hospital and some intensive care at home (when I thought he was doing better), we had to euthanize him in early September.
So late August held dark days for us. I was letting Scratchy into the pen mornings and evenings (too hot midday for the torts here in that setup). He obviously had a taste for plein air, and sometimes seeing him pacing the indoor enclosure made me anxious for evening outdoor time. Well, 30 minutes into one of these evening sessions, you guessed it - HE ESCAPED AGAIN.
WTH. 8" sheer sides. The chicken wire top was down of course.
The only thing I can think of is that Scratchy used tall grass?! We did the same thing - crawled under the house, looked in all the lawns. Problematically, the lawn between ours and Chris' (where I suspect he went) is unoccupied now. This means NO lawn maintenance. It's a real jungle.
So now we're without any tortoises. Can a miracle happen twice? I'm doing what I can to facilitate this, especially before winter evenings arrive. We've made a new trap, using it in conjunction with the little wooden one we reassembled (rain had ruined the wood glue from it's previous use).
Grass in the neglected lawn is super thick. There's nail heads along the top to discourage crawl-outs.
So here we are in mid-September, checking the traps twice a day. I found a grey mouse nibbling the peach I left the other day, so right now I'm a little discouraged about the evidence I've found of tortoise activity.
My heart is being filled with images of y'alls little and big torts. Thanks for putting up photos of your friends, and thanks for reading this very long post about Scratchy. If/when he returns, I'm changing his freakin' name to Houdini.
Scratchy came into our home in January.
My son wanted a tortoise. He's a sensitive kid, likes animals that are kinda chill by themselves - birds and turtles, not cats or dogs. So he saved up for months, $1 at a time, switching the toy he was saving for several times until he decided he wanted a pet. After a little research I decided a red foot would be a good match for our house side and climate. I kept an iguana and anoles when I was a kid, so I knew some basic reptile husbandry (I'm under no illusion that my 6 year old will actually be caring for his pet
We bought him at the local reptile shop in December, and let them hold him until we got back from holiday travel (which was really hard, because I could tell he was being kept too dry, in of course a tiny enclosure). Here he* is, before I figured out to feed him on a stone.
What are you looking at?
Typical hatchling, he was doing well. I let him have outside time usually every day in the spring (we live in New Orleans - imagine little post-stamp gardens for your lawn). Of course, this was healthy, and my ultimate undoing. On Easter, I went to check on him after about 30 minutes and - you guessed it - GONE.
After frantic looking and rending of clothes, we put up flyers around the neighborhood and knocked on doors. People thought we were nuts. A few days later I decided to try my hand at urban trapping.
The prototype was usually disturbed in the mornings. One morning, totally F'ed up.
I began by setting out bits of banana peel between the houses, which usually got messed with in the night. Then I built a trap out of cardboard, loading it with banana/green mixes usually. One night it got totally clobbered, nothing Scratchy could've done. At this point I had crawled under the house, looked under our neighbors too (we have raised houses here, about 3' off the soil).
my husband and son testing out the real deal I made of wood.
The wooden trap worked, but also got upended one night. I suspect a mean raccoon that lives a block away. At this point, weeks had gone by and I gave into despair. We eventually got a new tortoise in mid May.
Uno.
Uno was a little tiny guy from the same pet shop. He was more skittish, less of an appetite than Scratchy. In the months since Scratchy's escape, I built a bullet-proof outdoor enclosure.
*not pictured, wooden/chicken wire top piece to discourage any rogue hawks.
I dug down every side several inches, putting barriers beneath what you can see. The back barrier is about 5" deep.
-Four months later -
In July, I got this in my mailbox:
Would you look at the quality of this flyer?! Chris is awesome.
OMG, you can imagine my screams of joy! Turns out Chris lives two yards away from us. Scratchy was so great, he didn't want to part with him. It was a miracle.
Not pictured, my crazy happy face.
I celebrated so loudly when I read the flyer my three year-old daughter started to cry!
Life is good. Scratchy and Uno, together.
Scratchy had become quite a fatty in his rambling time. I couldn't believe how much he'd grown. And his appetite!! It was amazing.
But here's where the story darkens again. We left the torts with a family while we went camping for a few weeks in August (with a multi-page instructional sheet). When I picked up our lovely tort family, Uno looked TERRIBLE. I got him into a great herp. vet, but the outlook was grim. After a week in her hospital and some intensive care at home (when I thought he was doing better), we had to euthanize him in early September.
So late August held dark days for us. I was letting Scratchy into the pen mornings and evenings (too hot midday for the torts here in that setup). He obviously had a taste for plein air, and sometimes seeing him pacing the indoor enclosure made me anxious for evening outdoor time. Well, 30 minutes into one of these evening sessions, you guessed it - HE ESCAPED AGAIN.
WTH. 8" sheer sides. The chicken wire top was down of course.
The only thing I can think of is that Scratchy used tall grass?! We did the same thing - crawled under the house, looked in all the lawns. Problematically, the lawn between ours and Chris' (where I suspect he went) is unoccupied now. This means NO lawn maintenance. It's a real jungle.
So now we're without any tortoises. Can a miracle happen twice? I'm doing what I can to facilitate this, especially before winter evenings arrive. We've made a new trap, using it in conjunction with the little wooden one we reassembled (rain had ruined the wood glue from it's previous use).
Grass in the neglected lawn is super thick. There's nail heads along the top to discourage crawl-outs.
So here we are in mid-September, checking the traps twice a day. I found a grey mouse nibbling the peach I left the other day, so right now I'm a little discouraged about the evidence I've found of tortoise activity.
My heart is being filled with images of y'alls little and big torts. Thanks for putting up photos of your friends, and thanks for reading this very long post about Scratchy. If/when he returns, I'm changing his freakin' name to Houdini.
He was the first person I contacted, especially since I knew he had a soft spot for torts. We've gone into his yard and looked, nothing yet. But I'm still hopeful since in four months, there wasn't that much ground covered last time. At least none of my neighbors have dogs.
