Eyes awe bound
Belly earth borne,
Back home packed
Gait monastic
Native of no land,
Call led crawls, sense fed-
A bite here, a munch there
Bidding Time to slough out
Of this shell clad life.
(Tortoise poem by yoonoos peerbocus)
We never had a pet tortoise when we were children, other people did, many other people did. Even Blue Peter had a tortoise (generally called Fred irrespective of gender). We used to watch the Blue Peter tortoise, fascinated as it was put in a box for the winter and equally fascinated when it emerged some weeks later. I sort of wanted one but at the same time did not, they did not call to me as a must have pet.
There was once a time when as an adult on one of our holidays in North Wales we went to Pwllheli on the quest for a stone tortoise. It was not a successful quest but a highly entertaining afternoon the memory of which we still talk about every time the town is mentioned.
Now there is a new tortoise on the block, a new kid in town. A hidden tortoise I have visited and been close to for many years yet until the other day I had not seen. Then suddenly, on closer inspection there it was. That stone that had looked like a stone was actually a tortoise.Happy tortoise.