Morris, the Wandering Tortoise
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
September 3, 2015 12:50pm CST
My youngest daughter has a tortoise named Morris. He lives under a sun lamp in a box and enjoys bathing in a washing up bowl of water and exploring the house from time to time. My three year old grandson is very taken with Morris and talks to him and feeds him lettuce and other things. Morris really lives the life of Ryan.
This summer the weather was warm and doors were open and Morris went for a walk. Now, everyone knows that tortoises don't move that fast so I think that my daughter and Dougie felt it would be nice for Morris to enjoy the sun and the open air for a while. The trouble is that, when it's warm, tortoises can move faster than you think. Anyway, Morris was lost and Dougie was a little tearful, so his mum reassured him that he'd probably decided to go on holiday and would probably find his way back soon. Messages and photos were posted on Facebook and in the local shop but to no avail.
Well, the days turned into weeks and Morris hadn't returned or been found and it was time for the family to pack bags themselves and catch the plane for their holiday in Greece. I believe that they had a very good holiday and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. As you may know, tortoises are wild in Greece and can be seen quite often. There was a lovely moment, I heard today, when Dougie was discovered crouching down by a Greek tortoise and could be heard saying quietly, "Hello Morris, are you having a good holiday?"
As a post script, I am glad to report that Morris has been found. He had crossed a ditch and a wide playing field and had turned up in someone's garden nearly a mile away!
Have you ever had a tortoise as a pet and do you have cute stories of pets and grandchildren?
26 people like this
23 responses
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
3 Sep 15
We never had turtles or tortoises as pets. We had a fantastic and lovable dog, though. He was huge (about 120-130 pounds) but very gentle. My littlest one loved cuddling and climbing all over him. He would lay there and let her play, sometimes even nuzzling her and playing back. When he had enough, he would carefully get up and move away to a different spot. The trouble is that if she wasn't done, then she would follow him and continue to play. After a couple attempts to get away if she persisted, then he would just give out a defeated sigh, plop down and let her play until she got tired.
6 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
3 Sep 15
I would not like to spoil this discussion after these funny words from a children. I would not also want to be assassinated by a pet lover if I tell this bizarre tortoise story. A few years ago, I was preparing an excavation in a garden closed by walls where a building was planned. An excavator with a large 5 m wide bucket was removing the arable land and I was controlling its job to stop it on the archaeological level. After about two hours, the excavator had already done a 5 m wide x 30 m trench and a woman totally panicked ran in the garden : "Stop this ! Stop this immediately !" The driver stopped the excavator and she said breathless : "There is a tortoise in this garden !" I had not seen any tortoise, but the grass was high and I was not looking at the grass... We told her that we would be careful, and we were. We excavated during 3 months in this garden, and we did not saw the tortoise. She was probably somewhere in the 5 m high pile of arable land that I had asked the driver to do before she came
.
.4 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
3 Sep 15
Oh dear! What a sad story. Either some future archaeologist will find the remains of the tortoise and write a long and serious paper about the incidence of tortoises in France in the 20th Century or the tortoise actually escaped somehow (let's hope).
3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
3 Sep 15
@owlwings Yes, it is not the same happy end than for Morris. I was expecting to find the tortoise later during the excavations, as the excavations were only situated on the future building (maybe 20% of the total surface) but the tortoise was probably at the bad place at the bad moment
.
.3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
4 Sep 15
I had thought, until I looked up the Desert Tortoise, that tortoises (or land turtles) were only found in Africa and the Mediterranean (I forgot that the Galapagos Tortoise lives in a remote island in the Pacific). They are actually native to every continent (except Australasia and Antarctica) and are incredibly ancient - older than crocodiles or snakes. For a slow-moving animal which can't swim (and likes warm climates) it is rather amazing that they are so widely distributed!
1 person likes this
@Rosekitty (19368)
• San Marcos, Texas
3 Sep 15
I have never had a tortoise..have been around turtles my granddaughter had..makes me want to have one.
I had a friend in California who had a tortoise and it followed us wherever we went..was strange to me cause i never knew they could move like that...it lived a long time too..
4 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
3 Sep 15
I like furry pets! But that was a good story.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
3 Sep 15
I prefer furry (and feathered) pets, too. I did have a tortoise once but he was carefully hibernated in straw one winter and in the spring there was nothing left but the shell. We think that mice or a rat found him. I kept the shell (which was very attractive) for a long time.
2 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
3 Sep 15
@owlwings I know a woman who has turtles,rare ones, and she lets them roam free in her house - we only went inside one time - that was enough - P U.
3 people like this
@dpk262006 (58678)
• Delhi, India
4 Sep 15
It was a touching story to read
. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing.
I just tried to imagine the scene where your three years old grandson feeding him lettuce.
It is good to hear that ultimately you were able to find the lost Morris and it would have given you a big sigh of relief.
I have no such experience of keeping a pet in my house. Here at my place (New Delhi) people usually keep puppies/dogs as their pets. As per Indian laws a tortoise cannot be kept as it is banned. It also comes under the category of endangered species here.
. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing.
I just tried to imagine the scene where your three years old grandson feeding him lettuce.
It is good to hear that ultimately you were able to find the lost Morris and it would have given you a big sigh of relief.
I have no such experience of keeping a pet in my house. Here at my place (New Delhi) people usually keep puppies/dogs as their pets. As per Indian laws a tortoise cannot be kept as it is banned. It also comes under the category of endangered species here.2 people like this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
4 Sep 15
My first son was walking at nine months and running at ten months. Days after giving birth I was given an Alsatian puppy called Bridget who slept under his crib. One Sunday morning I asked my husband to watch the baby whilst I cooked breakfast and my husband was washing the car. Well he looked up and our son was missing. In a blind panic he yelled for the workers who lived on our farm to loo for the baby. I was in tears screaming and directing people to go to the rivers that surrounded the house. The road leading to the pigpen was checked and this was uphill so no one bothered to go to the top.Pure pandemonium as the number of people increased. I mean, how ludicrous to lose a ten month old baby?
Then our baby appeared coming down the hill holding onto Bridget's collar and Bridget leading him home! She gently nudged him in the right direction each time he lt go of her collar and toddled in a different direction. It was really so embarrassing to lose a baby like that. I so loved your story!
2 people like this
@allknowing (137822)
• India
4 Sep 15
I have never had them as pets. The only thing I know is that story about the Hare and the Tortoise
Talking about pets I had my nephew over with his son who is passionately fond of animals. Here he is seen with Preiti - a first time for both of them. Very comfortable with each other
Talking about pets I had my nephew over with his son who is passionately fond of animals. Here he is seen with Preiti - a first time for both of them. Very comfortable with each other2 people like this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16790)
• China
4 Sep 15
Happily ,Morris has been found,he actually crawled across a mile away.I have never kept a tortoise .Over here,tortoise and crane are mascots and the symbols of long life .
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
9 Oct 15
I had a pet tortoise in the 60's but he never survived his first hibernation - can't even remember his name now.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (50529)
• United States
8 Sep 15
I had some tiny turtles when I was a child.
2 people like this
@MoonHowler17 (101)
• Ballina, Australia
4 Sep 15
To the tune of "SpongeBob SquarePants" - who lives under a sun lamp in a box, Morris the tortoise...So lovely that Dougie met up with Morris on holidays in Greece - and that the real Morris came home! As a kid, I had a tortoise briefly. HE went on holidays too - or so I was told. The poor bugger was found upside down behind the refridgerator some months later...
2 people like this
@owstalaga (4707)
• Philippines
12 Sep 15
Oh the tortoise might have enjoyed the freedom too much, being in a box most of the time.
We had turtles as pets when I was a little kid. We kept them in a big and wide basin in the back yard. I don't remember how many there were but eventually they found a way to escape because they started disappearing one by one.
I don't think anything ate them or somebody took them. We all believed the turtles walked off on their own. And since we also had to move house we weren't able to find them anymore.
I hope they didn't die from lack of water or something... They might have moved underground somewhere under the house. There's a kind of hole there I don't know what it was exactly but maybe they just went under.
We had turtles as pets when I was a little kid. We kept them in a big and wide basin in the back yard. I don't remember how many there were but eventually they found a way to escape because they started disappearing one by one.
I don't think anything ate them or somebody took them. We all believed the turtles walked off on their own. And since we also had to move house we weren't able to find them anymore.
I hope they didn't die from lack of water or something... They might have moved underground somewhere under the house. There's a kind of hole there I don't know what it was exactly but maybe they just went under.1 person likes this
@owstalaga (4707)
• Philippines
15 Sep 15
@ChesneyM Yeah they went somewhere I am not sure exactly. Hopefully they reached the ark in time.
Only then did I learn turtles can be really "slippery" sometimes.
Only then did I learn turtles can be really "slippery" sometimes.1 person likes this
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
20 Sep 15
I have wild tortoises in the olive grove and they are very fast movers. I expect the poor things get lethargic when stuck indoors as pets rather than in their natural habitat. I just did a T post and would recommend you feed the pet on olive leaves and sage.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
6 Sep 15
My neighbor had a for many years and then a few years ago she donated him to this nature center where her oldest daughter was going to college. So we can all go visit him (yeah, I forgot his name
) anytime.
) anytime.1 person likes this
@GreatMartin (23671)
• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
22 Sep 15
In the past two weeks old turtles from different houses decided to take a stroll--owners were frantic but they eventually found them--for 'slow' guys they covered a lot of territories!
1 person likes this
