Spotted Fawn Farm

Oh all right. I’ll confess. My belligerent tortoise made a hasty escape yesterday after all the shearing hubbub. To be fair, his door was left open so it wasn’t much of an escape. Once, several years ago, he burst through a wire horse fence like the kool-aid man, leaving an exact, tortoise-shaped hole. That was a jerk move.
I posted on my little town’s page and alerted the neighbors and he was discovered on the side of the road, heading who knows where.
I always like to say, when talking about tortoises, that they do not make good pets and it’s a really unfair life for them. I so wish they weren’t legal to sell, willy-nilly, to any and everybody with a little aquarium. Because, THEY GROW LIKE CRAZY!
If you’ve followed us for a while you know what it takes to keep a giant behemoth thriving. They eat certain foods, need the right temperatures (mine has two heaters and a heated floor in the winter) and, embarrassingly, the proper fencing. They climb. They tear out walls. They go through glass doors. They move furniture and open random paint cans and spread paint through entire barns, or so I’m told.
They are intelligent and curious. In the wild, they walk miles a day. Tortoises aren’t slow.
My Tortellini came to me through a DNR call 25 years ago. He has been both a joy and a struggle and my kids have no love left for him due to picking him up and fighting his big clawed feet so many times.
But he should be in Africa, walking and meeting lady shells, digging and sunning. It’s not his fault and I do love the stuffin’ out of him.
I encourage everyone wanting an easy indoor pet to research and adopt a house rabbit instead. Loving, easily litter trained sweethearts that don’t mind being left behind when you’re at work or school. Tortoises are often “set free” and they do not survive.

The boy in the picture is now turning 30. That’s how long we’ve dealt with his antics (both the boy and the tortoise) and the picture with me is this morning, on the side of the road where he was sashaying out into the unknown.

Ah, the day that strikes fear in my heart is successfully off the list for a year!
Four woolies went easily into the barn but one stupid girl, Anna Beth, caused a rodeo. My back will be wonky for a week!
Everyone is sleek and beautiful now thanks to the wonderful Nicole and Hartwell, the grooviest and most excellent shearers on earth. They make the whole process seem easy and fun.
All my naked ruminants are nervously enjoying a cool breeze and giggling at each other.