WOYWW # 143, A Card and Toby Tortoise's life Story

Morning everyone,

How is your week going? Very fast like mine??? Lots to say today so onto photos

This was my desk Tuesday night before I put away all my toys ready for next time I am able to play! Not much on there a few new bits of stash, some cheap Kanban stamps I got from hobbycraft, love a bargain! In the little red basket on the marker storage is lots of pre-coloured images, in the small plastic pots on the right is some computer printed sentiments cut out ready to use and the other pot has some bits and pieces of craft knives (new blades etc..) at the back you will see my copic marker list, all the normal things that stay on my desk all the time, ruler, glue, more pens. A few x-cut punches (these are little flower shapes), tissues and laptop, next to me is a small table with my bigshot on, all the different spellbinder dies i used and a million different flowers that i spent over an hour placing onto the card, moving them about and then taking them of again and then didn't use any on the card I made following the sketch over at A Gem of a Challenge.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Gem of A Challenge # 40 = Sketch

Items used (made a list and didn’t lose it yeahhhh lol its still on my desk along with the sketch!)

15 x 15 cm white card & white flower ribbon from stash/

Papermania Capsule DP (DoCrafts) Blueberry Pie

Copics, E13, E0, E00, E000 R20. B91, B93, B95, C0, C1, C2, C3,C5 C7

Stamp = Magnolia, Tilda with bow and a computer made sentiment.

Please check out The Stamping Ground and visit our great hostess Julia for details on how you can join in and share your mess/desk/floor/ table work area! and look around lots & lots of other crafters areas getting lots of inspiration, you get to see the most amazing art creations and many different kinds of craft and of course you get to meet some amazing people so give it a go but beware its addictive!

Now on to the story of Toby, I showed you a piccy of our tortoise a couple of weeks ago and lots of you asked questions about him and his obsession with mens boots!– No tortoise was harmed in the making of this and he is very happy and thriving! lol

Toby was given to us about 11 years ago, when his owners moved overseas, he came to us with a couple of toes missing but otherwise in good health, and we were told he was about 11 years old, at the time and we were also told he was house trained (how can you possibly house train a tortoise right!) and given instruction on what he liked to eat and drink.

So he settled in very well and lived in the house with us, Never in a tank, he can wander around (we have a stair gate so he cannot fall down any stairs) he has to have a large shallow dish filled with water that he likes to get in and bath and drink and yes poop whenever he wants and we were told he lived on a diet of soft fruit and salad vegetables, It was spring when he came to us and on warmer days we would take him into the garden, he loved stomping about the patio, hiding in the ornamental grasses, eating the strawberries that would hang over the edges of the plant pots and sitting on the edge on the edge of the bubbling water feature, (as well as getting into his own water).

One day we put him onto the grass (the grass area was not enclosed/safe so we had to keep a close eye on him), and well he started doing a funny little dance thing, we all watched with amazement as he went round and round in circles stomping his little feet it was a tortoise version of river dance! It felt like he had a purpose, and then he started using his front legs to dig!!

I had to find out what he was doing and why, I researched how he lived in the wild and I found out Toby isn’t an everyday/normal pet tortoise, (which are generally Horsfield or Hermann) he is called a 3 Toed Box Turtle he can close both ends tight, so predators cannot get him, I have no idea where his previous owners got him from but we found out he needs lots of special care, so did lots more research and spoke to ‘Tortoise specialists’ and his diet in the wild would have been worms and slugs. Toby was dancing on the grass so that the worms would think it was raining and come to the surface, well we had to help out and make him as happy as possible so tried digging for worms, we tried all kinds of things, getting hints and tips from any where we could, do you know there is worm ‘charming’ competitions! I know! I had never heard of such a thing, but its true. But worms are very hard to catch! So we started buying them, for him from the fishing tackle shop and he loves them! And now has a very good diet of earth worms and soft fruit, (the occasional slug), He soon began to thrive and his skin and eyes glowed and he was/is very active, very fast and he loves climbing, he had put on weight, he is a member of the family. He doesn’t hibernate as such because he is small he can’t eat enough to see him right through winter, but he will sleep for around about month/6 weeks during winter. He has a little cardboard house lined with felt, in the corner with a ‘proper’ heat mat for the colder months.

A couple of years went by and then he reached puberty!!! One day we came home to find he was ‘mating with my hubby’s boots that had been left in the kitchen, (Shocked or what!!!) he soon became obsessed with boots and men’s shoes and will chase around the room trying to ‘mate’ with your shoes, and can be a right nuisance and it can be very embarrassing, (try explaining to a 5 year old why Toby wants to play with Daddy’s shoes) he will try to ‘mount any shoe he finds attractive, he will stay there for hours if we let him, so no shoes allowed in the house. However occasionally when hubby forgets and leaves his boots on after being in garden or if he leaves them in the kitchen, this is what happens:

(Now for the serous bit – 3 toed tortoises are difficult to look after, you have to give them lots of care and a wide, careful variety of food, he has to have the correct living environment and are not really meant to be pets, We care for him very much and have spoken to specialists and continue to keep his conditions as perfect as we can, he is a good weight and very healthy, but I would not recommend anyone keeping tortoises for pets, they look very cute but need special care and can be expensive for equipment, vet bills, when he first came to us he did not have the correct diet and the vets think that could be why he lost some of his toes)

Hope you enjoyed looking round my desk and sharing the story of Toby - sorry for such a long post!

Have a great WOYWW. Hugs Lou xxx