# Is owning a tortoise 'cool'



## yillt (Dec 29, 2015)

I know a few people of my age that own tortoises and they use them as status symbols. I also know people who say 'eew, they're scaly and you can't hug them, get a bunny." 
I love my tortoise and I got him when I was eight and had no idea what cool was. But I was wondering, do you think that tortoise are bought mostly so people can show off their exotic pet and them give it back when they get bored? All ideas appreciated ；D


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## Kenno (Dec 29, 2015)

Tortoises have a way of capturing your heart! Anyone who would get bored with them would be a very shallow person.


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## hingeback (Dec 29, 2015)

Kenno said:


> Tortoises have a way of capturing your heart! Anyone who would get bored with them would be a very shallow person.


Agreed, I spend lots of time watching mine. Never gets bored


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## Yvonne G (Dec 29, 2015)

Way back in the olden days, when I got my first tortoise, I suppose I had it because it was 'cool.' I was a young mother, just starting out, and only around 17 or 18 years old. No one that I knew at that time had a tortoise. We found this huge male desert tortoise and put him in our back yard. We never even considered he might be someone's lost pet. We just kept him, named him Gumdrop. I fed him all our leftovers, things like spaghetti, salad (including the dressing), mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. He ate it all. Of course, he also had the grass to graze on. Back in those days, there were no computers, and it never occurred to me that I might actually BUY a book to learn how to care for this animal. No, it was catch as catch can. He had to live or not live on what we did for him. And, yes! I was cool!!!

I know some of you may wonder at this story, because I've told before of "my first tortoise, Mi-Shell." Mi-Shell came later, after Gumdrop. When I say Mi-Shell was my first tortoise I mean that she was the first one I took seriously and actually tried to learn how to care for. She came 10 or 15 years after poor Gumdrop.


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## ZEROPILOT (Dec 29, 2015)

yillt said:


> I know a few people of my age that own tortoises and they use them as status symbols. I also know people who say 'eew, they're scaly and you can't hug them, get a bunny."
> I love my tortoise and I got him when I was eight and had no idea what cool was. But I was wondering, do you think that tortoise are bought mostly so people can show off their exotic pet and them give it back when they get bored? All ideas appreciated ；D


I think that most people that end up giving away their torts had no idea what they were getting into when they first got one. (Or at least unrealistic ideas). 
As far as cool goes....People are always curious about my tortoises and want to ask about them.
But, I'm just VERY cool in general!


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## Kapidolo Farms (Dec 29, 2015)

This is sorta a funny question, in that I have reflected on it myself many times. Somehow being cool as in Joe Cool, or some rapper or whatever is the pop cool of the day does not seem captured by having a tortoise. I don't think it has for over 40+ years or else I would be flocked by attractive women in bikinis, yeah??

It is cool in the sense that having a tortoise is a good pet for self centering. To keep you on your own balance. Tortoises are a no nonsense animal that take their time and relax often, act with purpose, and can be stubborn towards a goal. 

"Cool" as a characteristic of self is ephemeral in meaning, but I don't think I'm externally cool because I have tortoises. Looking at a tortoise gives me a centering, similar to looking at giant trees (think 3000 year old Sequoias that are hundreds of feet tall), or even a small magnolia with giant leaves and blossoms the size of your head. These kinds of things take the crap part of life (paying bills, worrying about workplace colleagues screwing with you, neighbors who run chainsaws every weekend morning at 6am., etc.) out of my presence in real time life, and help me recall that most sh!t does not matter. So in that sense they cool me, but don't make me cool.


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## jaizei (Dec 29, 2015)

Yvonne G said:


> Way back in the olden days, when I got my first tortoise, I suppose I had it because it was 'cool.' I was a young mother, just starting out, and only around 17 or 18 years old. No one that I knew at that time had a tortoise. We found this huge male desert tortoise and put him in our back yard. We never even considered he might be someone's lost pet. We just kept him, named him Gumdrop. I fed him all our leftovers, things like spaghetti, salad (including the dressing), mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. He ate it all. Of course, he also had the grass to graze on. Back in those days, there were no computers, and it never occurred to me that I might actually BUY a book to learn how to care for this animal. No, it was catch as catch can. He had to live or not live on what we did for him. And, yes! I was cool!!!
> 
> I know some of you may wonder at this story, because I've told before of "my first tortoise, Mi-Shell." Mi-Shell came later, after Gumdrop. When I say Mi-Shell was my first tortoise I mean that she was the first one I took seriously and actually tried to learn how to care for. She came 10 or 15 years after poor Gumdrop.



Let's be honest, the motorcycle pictures have already established that. How long did you have Gumdrop?


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## Yvonne G (Dec 29, 2015)

We had Gumdrop for a couple years at that house, then we moved to the country. I set up an area with T-posts and chicken wire for Gumdrop and he was gone before you can say, "Where's my tortoise?"


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## yillt (Dec 29, 2015)

ZEROPILOT said:


> I think that most people that end up giving away their torts had no idea what they were getting into when they first got one. (Or at least unrealistic ideas).
> As far as cool goes....People are always curious about my tortoises and want to ask about them.
> But, I'm just VERY cool in general!


Obviously we are all VERY VEY cool.


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## dmmj (Dec 29, 2015)

I am cool, tortoise notwithstanding


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## Tom (Dec 29, 2015)

If anything, having tortoises makes you somewhat of a nerd. Not cool.

I've had a few people that are animal and reptile lovers think my tortoises were cool, but I can't think of one person who thinks I am cool because I have tortoises. Most people who hear about my tortoise think I'm weird and they don't "get it".


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## ZEROPILOT (Dec 29, 2015)

Tom said:


> If anything, having tortoises makes you somewhat of a nerd. Not cool.
> 
> I've had a few people that are animal and reptile lovers think my tortoises were cool, but I can't think of one person who thinks I am cool because I have tortoises. Most people who hear about my tortoise think I'm weird and they don't "get it".


Wow. An honest answer.


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## GeorgeUK (Dec 29, 2015)

The tortoises themselves certainly don't think we are cool.
Sometimes Lady Dorothy looks at me as though I'm distracting her. She even head-butted me for trying to clean out her enclosure, the wee lassie has attitude... Cute though, especially when she charged with those stumpy little feet 

As for everyone else, they all love her as much as I do. Though I doubt they think I'm cool... They think she is!


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## yillt (Dec 29, 2015)

GeorgeUK said:


> The tortoises themselves certainly don't think we are cool.
> Sometimes Lady Dorothy looks at me as though I'm distracting her. She even head-butted me for trying to clean out her enclosure, the wee lassie has attitude... Cute though, especially when she charged with those stumpy little feet


My tortoise certainly doesn't think IM cool. He knows me purely as the 'God of his food.'


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## TurtleBug (Dec 29, 2015)

Tom said:


> Most people who hear about my tortoise think I'm weird and they don't "get it".



Hah ha! The curse of being a tortoise keeper. Many of us, if not all, have experienced that.


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## Anthony P (Dec 29, 2015)

I feel bad for anyone who gets a tortoise to be cool, haha, since doing anything to try to be cool, is, well, uncool........


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## Gillian M (Dec 29, 2015)

Oh yes owning a tort is cool, I think, that is despite the fact that these cute little animals only run for food.  One cannot really give and take with them, train them to do certain things/not to do other things. Still, I've fallen deeply in love with OLI  my tort (not only OLI KAHN the football player).


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## chaseswife (Dec 29, 2015)

I accepted our tort baby when he was offered because I thought owning a tort would be a cool experience, not because of how it would look to anyone else. My kids at least seem to think I am cool for having the tortoie. But to be honest, my oldest is 12. Right on the verge of being a teenager and the next 2 aren't very far behind her. It won't be long before nothing I do is cool.


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## Pokeymeg (Dec 29, 2015)

Tom said:


> If anything, having tortoises makes you somewhat of a nerd. Not cool.
> 
> I've had a few people that are animal and reptile lovers think my tortoises were cool, but I can't think of one person who thinks I am cool because I have tortoises. Most people who hear about my tortoise think I'm weird and they don't "get it".



LOL! Most of my friends must be nerds too because they all think my tortoise is pretty cool! (I know some of my friends are just humoring me and aren't that interested, but they're kind enough to ask about him).

Seriously, though, I think keeping a tortoise(s) is 'cool' in that it's certainly a conversation starter. Just like when I say I keep bees. Some people are repulsed, like all the reptile haters out there, but it still gets conversation flowing!


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## Tom (Dec 29, 2015)

Pokeymeg said:


> Seriously, though, I think keeping a tortoise(s) is 'cool' in that it's certainly a conversation starter. Just like when I say I keep bees. Some people are repulsed, like all the reptile haters out there, but it still gets conversation flowing!




No way!

Everyone thinks bees are cool! And they are! Natures little miracle workers.


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## Tom (Dec 29, 2015)

chaseswife said:


> I accepted our tort baby when he was offered because I thought owning a tort would be a cool experience, not because of how it would look to anyone else. My kids at least seem to think I am cool for having the tortoie. But to be honest, my oldest is 12. Right on the verge of being a teenager and the next 2 aren't very far behind her. It won't be long before nothing I do is cool.



I just asked my 8 year old daughter and her friend. Both agreed that I am cool.

I'll have to ask again in 5 or 6 years.


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## mike taylor (Dec 29, 2015)

Is tortoises cool ?????? That's a good question . Nope not at all . They are freaking awesome !


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## Lyn W (Dec 29, 2015)

When I get excited about finding dandelions or plantains and am stuffing my pockets full of them - most people just think I am mad!
Lola usually looks at me with disdain.


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## dmmj (Dec 29, 2015)

people often think
my tortoises are cool, me not so much.


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## Tom (Dec 29, 2015)

dmmj said:


> people often think
> my tortoises are cool, me not so much.



They don't think you are cool because you are AWESOME!!!!

Captain Awesome!!!


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## wellington (Dec 29, 2015)

Tom said:


> If anything, having tortoises makes you somewhat of a nerd. Not cool.
> 
> I've had a few people that are animal and reptile lovers think my tortoises were cool, but I can't think of one person who thinks I am cool because I have tortoises. Most people who hear about my tortoise think I'm weird and they don't "get it".


This is what I was thinking. People do think my torts are very cool, but they don't get why someone would have them as a pet. I'm known as the crazy tortoise lady in my fairly new neighborhood and was known as that from the first day my torts were noticed. They are a cool attraction, but I'm not the cool owner.


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## leigti (Dec 29, 2015)

I was not cool before I got my tortoise, and I still am not cool. Good thing that wasn't my goal when I got the tortoise. I love all kinds of animals, and if I had the time money and room I would own many many more. Some of my friends think the tortoises are cool, some don't get it at all. Maybe if I had a few full grown Galapagos or Aldabra I would have a tiny chance of being slightly cool.


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