Me, my brother, his s & d, and 2 of our young cousins all went to pick them up. The kids are 8 to 13 in age. Guess what their FIRST sight of the torts was?? YEP... Stanley moaning loudly while trying to make baby torts!
AHHH... the natural way of the world!
Sandy and John were SO great with the kids. Sandy introduced them to all of the iguanas, let them pet one of each species. The kids, of course had ever only seen Gil, so the Blue-hybrids and Rhinos were very different for them and they had lots of questions. They also liked the uromastyx (got to pet Cleo the orange one). Actually, I think their favorite lizard of all was the blue tongued skink. They thought he was pretty cool.
Raise your hand if you've ever had to move 300 pounds of tortoise into a trailer.
WOW what a task that was! John knew there was NO way to lure them all the way into the front yard, so he found a large dolly (the kind like you'd use to move a potted plant). He and Jerry (my bro) man-handled Camille (the larger of the two) onto it and rolled her into the front. We had a large enclosed trailer that Jerry had lined with hay bales, and Camille just barely fit in the center.
Next came Stanley... He was in a feisty mood anyway.
He DID NOT like being rolled about like a piece of furniture, and kept putting his legs down and trying to walk off the dolly. Finally, I tempted him forward with strawberries which worked. We loaded him facing away from her... but he was small enough to turn around.
Next came the 2 hour drive home which was fairly uneventful. When we got them home to Mom's, getting them out was easier than getting them in. We got a plant dolly that Mom had, and rolled Stanley into the backyard. He stopped just inside the gate... there was GRASS!!! We managed to get Camille further into the yard, though. They spent the next hour pigging out on fresh grass.
They explored the yard after that; Stanley began to "herd" Camille around. It's pretty funny to watch him. He has to run to get in front of her, then he puts his face in her shell and shoves her around (as much as he can), once he gets her to stop moving, he runs to her rear end... but of course she starts walking again, so he has to run up to her front and make her stop again... lol... it process just goes on and on. If she could only tell him, "Stanley, it's really not as good for me as it is for you, and I'd prefer not to do it, thank you." Then maybe he'd understand... oh wait... he's a man!
As the sun began to set, they started looking for a their bed. Stanley was at the end of the yard where it's located, but it was unfamiliar to him... just a large wooden box. Mom and I put the familiar black door flaps on the openings, I held one open at an angle, and he immediately recognized it as "bed" and went straight in. Very smart guy. Camille was still wandering aimlessly in grass trying to find "bed," so we loaded her onto the dolly, and rolled her over to it. Once we opened the flap, she saw Stanley inside and understood, too.
It rained at my house last night, but not at Mom's (just 8 mile away). It's overcast today, so they may not even get out of bed at all. When they do go outside, they'll have a great time exploring and discovering all about their new home.
I'll be there Tuesday for our family dinner and Bible study, so I'll be sure to take some pictures of them.
