We got two new pets today, and, boy, are they cute! They are African Spurred Tortoises. We thought they were turtles at first, but after doing some research, we found that they are, in fact, tortoises. Am I ever thankful for spell-check. When's the last time you tried to spell tortoise?! Turtle is much easier than tortoise to spell.
A missionary friend had two baby tortoises that she'd been saving for our family. She has adult tortoises that have a new batch of babies every now and then, and we had told her we'd love to have some if there were ever any available. On Thanksgiving Day, we hosted a group of almost a dozen other friends and missionary colleagues in our home. She was there, and told us about these wee tortoise-tots she was saving for us. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, by the way! Over dinner, the stories were flying! ...from turtle tales to catching and eating bush rat, then on to why missionaries should always bring their own sheets and pillows when staying in any African "hotel" while traveling. I just love sitting around a table full of missionaries and listening to their stories. There is nothing like it!
But I digress... back to our new pets. We picked them up today, and here they are! They're about 6 months old.
We haven't chosen names for them yet, but we'll let you know when we do.
In Isaiah's hand...
We'll keep them in this rubber tote for now, and eventually build a cage for them outside until they're big enough to fend for themselves. They're only about 3-4 inches long now, so they could easily get lost or fall prey to cats, rats, or owls. Yes, very cool for us, but not so cool for baby turtles, we have owls that live in the trees behind our house!
I loved snagging this photo with my new camera a few weeks ago. I was surprised to see this huge guy just chilling in our backyard eucalyptus trees in broad daylight, and was thankful for my cameras great zoom. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to take this picture, because he was pretty high up.
Our baby turtles, uh, tortoises, came in perfect time. Just yesterday, our cat Flicker died unexpectedly. She was due to give birth to a new littler of kittens any day, and I think something went wrong with the delivery. We've had Flicker since we first moved to Niger. She was a wonderful, friendly cat who was the mother of many sweet kittens. She will be missed! I was so happy to see the children's joy as they welcomed their new little charges, our tortoises, especially since I had literally just wiped away the tears from Flicker's death. God is so good, and His timing is always perfect!
For more cool facts on our type of tortoise, you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_spurred_tortoise
