Nearly twentyfive years ago my neighbour told me someone was advertising on the radio for a home for a turtle. I phoned. I went to see. I saw. I was conquered and took "Norma Jean the turtle queen" home with me. This free turtle cost a bundle..tank, filter, food, etc. She has lived with me ever since. She knows me, she knows the routine which precedes her feeding and she gets excited. She has a couple of little "tricks" she taught herself...in summer she goes out into Norma's Condo during the day and is fed out there. Wintertime she rules the counter near the sink. I am VERY careful about salmonella, disinfect the area around her, wash my hands carefully, rah rah rah.
I am also very partial to toads, they have the most incredible eyes but I have never attempted to keep one for a companion. As a result of this I'm sure I have "ToadAnna the Invisible" who lives under my modular and at times, in the summer, serenades me . I have no idea why she stays under the house, I fantasize she has grown too big to crawl back out the hole by which she entered...but, of course, there are access places so that's raw fantasy. She must live on bugs, and spiders, I can't imagine she is big enough to eat mice...
I saw a tortoise for sale in a pet store and almost....but did some checking and I think they'd be much harder to care for than a turtle. Right now there's an epidemic of African spade footed toads on this Island, they were the flavour of the month for a brief time, then the idiots got tired of them and turned them loose and..they're eating everything, including the indigenous toads and frogs...if one of them shows up in my yard I might be tempted to ...de-feralize (?) it...
