Because I have a fenced in yard here, I often come out to find that I have a visitor! Skylar stays in my yard 24/7 during the summer, but in the winter his owner takes him inside at night, but returns him to my yard when it warms up in the morning. Very few days here are too cold for him not to spend at least a portion of his day running around my yard.
When asked if it would be o.k. for him to be loose over
here, I gave my assent, but was concerned that Morgan would mess with
him. Turns out that he is almost as big as Morgan, and has absolutely
no fear of her!! For her part, Morgan wasn't too sure about this
interloper in HER yard at first, but now looks for Skylar when she goes
outside. Why do we always look for Skylar? Because we spent the first
couple of weeks he was in the yard noticing he was missing, finding
him, returning him to the yard and then figuring out how he got out!!
He's a smart little critter, but the yard is finally 'tortoise proof'
LOL!
Not being a herpetologist, I have been amazed at how much personality Skylar has. Because I spend quite a bit of time outside and pay attention to him, Skylar has become attached to me and will come when I call and stretches his neck out so I can scratch him in his favorite spots easily. He also follows me all over the yard begging for treats and scratches.
I love taking pictures of animals, and I also enjoy looking at the pictures others have taken. National Wildlife just had a photo contest and there are some stunning pictures there.... I hope someday to be half as good as these people! Enjoy!
10 comments:
Skylar is beautiful!!!
Sug
Is Skylar (love that name!) a gopher tortoise? Mine (Bea) is leopard tortoise. She's definitely not too bright. And not much fun. But she's one of my "kids". the spouse has re-named her "Bernadette" because he's Catholic and very into that whole Lourdes miracle which supposedly happened years ago in Spain or France or somewhere. I still call her Bea.
Russ
Love that Skylar!!!!!!
Really, you do lead one of the most charmed lives. A tortoise that responds like that is quite worth sharing. We once stopped to move a large snapping turtle out of the middle of the road. Not exactly cooperative, and boy there necks stretch further than I imagined.
Great photo, btw.
Tammy
http://lifeliveitormissout.blogspot.com
I love turtles~ I'm always rescueing them from the road as you know in FL. there are a lot! And we some of these guys when we go 4 wheeling at my brothers in Lake Wales! Skylar is gorgeous and what a great pic! Hugs and GBU, Shelly
I love that picture Astaryth!! I wish I had a tortoise running around in my back yard! I just have lizards, and sometimes some frogs! I love both of those little critters too!
Jackie
I used to have tortioses and they are a lot cleverer than people think. I also had two giant African land snails and they had different personalities. One was a real wus and the other loved a shower with luke warm water running gently over it.
Jenny <><
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jennyp51/stop-the-clock-times-moving-too-/
Please send me those tutorials you'd mentioned. I'm going to try to hook up the scanner this weekend.
Hug,
Russ
Well, I had an opossum on my back porch before. You may remember, I named her Jennifer Love Possum. But, she was UGLY, not as cute as Skylar!
What a charmer he is...we miss GusGus, our Carolina Box turtle.she had a lot of personality, too, even with her mutilated face.
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