Lady Hermann not her usual self

zolasmum

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View attachment 344505in my cosy boudoir, my retainer has just served my morning soggies.
It's grey and mizzling so I will remain in my private hut and look out at the garden.
A pigeon was looking at my breakfast longingly.
Hello Ruth - Teztez seems to have no ill effects from her hibernation. I don't think she will inspire me to hibernate Zola, though. We have had a very disturbed day today, as the workmen were doing very noisy things, so we went out twice, to different places, to get away from it. We were told the work would be finished by April, but they have a lot to do yet !
Zola gets a bit agitated by the noise, but he managed fairly well- I think he senses our tension, though.
I hope you've had a good day with the Lady. xxx
 

MenagerieGrl

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Hello, yes you are right, they are forget me nots that grow wild all over our garden. That was just a random picture of Teztez that I put in. We call that sticky weed "lad's love" a funny evocative name!
I'm afraid there are a lot of weeds in our garden but at least they come in useful for tortoises.
We have clumps of bluebells as well, it's funny how Teztez likes to sit on them. She doesn't try to eat them but pushes her head under the leaves. Perhaps they are fragrant and cool.
I love wildflowers and would like to grow them all over the place. Sadly, poppies refuse to grow in our garden. The soil isn't right for them. I've tried lots of times, but they never come up.
We have lots of cowslips and primroses, lilies of the valley, grape hyacinths and columbine.
Have you got a tortoise too, menagerie girl?
Kind regards, Ruth x
Hi Ruthiepo,
Yes, I have two Tortie's, A Leopard Tort, named Seymour :tort: 4 yrs old and a Newly identified Desert Boxie, Named Bump :tort: , Along with 5 rescue dogs, 2 Chinese Brown Geese, 5 Ducks and a Dozen chickens, in addition to a 100 gallon pond with 7 goldfish swimming around in it. Oh, and I forgot to mention my other Feathered Kids....3 Macaws (a Hyacinth and 2 Hybrids), 5 Cockatoo's (3 types), a Yellow Naped Amazon and a Handicapped Pigeon named Pidg, who runs the house (The Queen of the house).
So you can See How I got my "Handle", MenagerieGrl 🤪
Marsha...
BTW, I love seeing the Pict's of Teztez 🥰 :tort:
Oh, and Prayer's again for dear Pete... 🥺
I lost a Hermann's named Giagantor a year and a half ago....
 

ruthiepo

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Hello Ruth - Teztez seems to have no ill effects from her hibernation. I don't think she will inspire me to hibernate Zola, though. We have had a very disturbed day today, as the workmen were doing very noisy things, so we went out twice, to different places, to get away from it. We were told the work would be finished by April, but they have a lot to do yet !
Zola gets a bit agitated by the noise, but he managed fairly well- I think he senses our tension, though.
I hope you've had a good day with the Lady. xxx
Hello Angie, I'm so sorry you are having disturbances from the building work and i can understand Zola disliking the noise and vibrations very much.
[t's good you can get away from it into the countryside. I do hope it will be completed soon.

Teztez has always taken control of her hibernation, making the decision herself to reduce eating from end of August through September and fasting all through October. She flatly refuses to look at food, although of course i make sure she is hydrated by giving her a bath every day.

I think she is ok, she eats quite well, especially soggies, and poos and wees with normal urates.

Its raining here, we do need the rain as everywhere is very dry. The lady is staying firmly in her warm hut. we hope you have a more peaceful day today. sending fondest regards and best wishes from Lady Teztez and Ruthxx

Hello Ruth - Teztez seems to have no ill effects from her hibernation. I don't think she will inspire me to hibernate Zola, though. We have had a very disturbed day today, as the workmen were doing very noisy things, so we went out twice, to different places, to get away from it. We were told the work would be finished by April, but they have a lot to do yet !
Zola gets a bit agitated by the noise, but he managed fairly well- I think he senses our tension, though.
I hope you've had a good day with the Lady. xxx
 

ruthiepo

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Hi Ruthiepo,
Yes, I have two Tortie's, A Leopard Tort, named Seymour :tort: 4 yrs old and a Newly identified Desert Boxie, Named Bump :tort: , Along with 5 rescue dogs, 2 Chinese Brown Geese, 5 Ducks and a Dozen chickens, in addition to a 100 gallon pond with 7 goldfish swimming around in it. Oh, and I forgot to mention my other Feathered Kids....3 Macaws (a Hyacinth and 2 Hybrids), 5 Cockatoo's (3 types), a Yellow Naped Amazon and a Handicapped Pigeon named Pidg, who runs the house (The Queen of the house).
So you can See How I got my "Handle", MenagerieGrl 🤪
Marsha...
BTW, I love seeing the Pict's of Teztez 🥰 :tort:
Oh, and Prayer's again for dear Pete... 🥺
I lost a Hermann's named Giagantor a year and a half ago....
Gracious Marsha!
you must be very busy in the nicest possible way!
What an amazing family you have. i hope they are all doing well.
Thank you for your kind thoughts about Pete. We really miss him, he was such a nice boy, even coming when his name was called "Petey boy"
Its so sad. Im sorry about your tortoise Giagantor as well.
Love from Ruthxx
 

zolasmum

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Hello Angie, I'm so sorry you are having disturbances from the building work and i can understand Zola disliking the noise and vibrations very much.
[t's good you can get away from it into the countryside. I do hope it will be completed soon.

Teztez has always taken control of her hibernation, making the decision herself to reduce eating from end of August through September and fasting all through October. She flatly refuses to look at food, although of course i make sure she is hydrated by giving her a bath every day.

I think she is ok, she eats quite well, especially soggies, and poos and wees with normal urates.

Its raining here, we do need the rain as everywhere is very dry. The lady is staying firmly in her warm hut. we hope you have a more peaceful day today. sending fondest regards and best wishes from Lady Teztez and Ruthxx
Hello Ruth - we have had quite a bit of heavy rain,which is good, but which didn't encourage us to go anywhere away from the noise next-door. They didn't have quite as much loud vibrating work to do, thankfully. Zola has been full of energy - racing around climbing on things (and getting stuck ) But he always stops whatever he is doing to come to me - sometimes I try to creep in his conservatory to get something, but he always notices me - and I have to cuddle him and apologise for not staying there with him at all times. The only time he might ignore me is if Richard comes in too - then he has a difficult choice to make !
Has Teztez become more friendly with your husband now?
Love to you all from Angie and Zola xxx
 

ruthiepo

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Hello Angie, that sounds lovely, Zola is such a gorgeous tortoise.
Steve is really very interested and amused by Teztez but he doesn't like to give this away so he pretends to be indifferent and disapproving of my interest and affection for tortoises. he was horrified and very upset because i was so distraught and heartbroken about Pete whom we had reared from a baby, and felt responsible that he had let me become so attached to him during lockdown, and felt it was his fault that it had ended in floods of tears.
i can understand his feeling. Teztez is so robust and self sufficient (apart from loving her soggies) and i feel sure that she could resume her feral type life without much trouble. i spoil her to the nth degree because i love to have something to look after and give lots of tlc.
i do miss Pete so much, he was so energetic like Zola before his terrible accident with the heat lamp. and he fought so hard to recover. i wish i had never stopped the series of injections but obviously the damage to his plastron was deep and maybe he would always have had a weakness there which could become infected.
At least he is no longer in pain but why is it so easy to cry over animals and yet so much more complicated when people die. the anguish is so dreadful that you cant even cry because of the shock and the mixed feelings. then, maybe , when an uncomplicated affection to a harmless little animal comes to an end, all those emotions come out and you cannot stop crying.
Anyway, lots of love from Ruthxxx
 

MenagerieGrl

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Hello Angie, that sounds lovely, Zola is such a gorgeous tortoise.
Steve is really very interested and amused by Teztez but he doesn't like to give this away so he pretends to be indifferent and disapproving of my interest and affection for tortoises. he was horrified and very upset because i was so distraught and heartbroken about Pete whom we had reared from a baby, and felt responsible that he had let me become so attached to him during lockdown, and felt it was his fault that it had ended in floods of tears.
i can understand his feeling. Teztez is so robust and self sufficient (apart from loving her soggies) and i feel sure that she could resume her feral type life without much trouble. i spoil her to the nth degree because i love to have something to look after and give lots of tlc.
i do miss Pete so much, he was so energetic like Zola before his terrible accident with the heat lamp. and he fought so hard to recover. i wish i had never stopped the series of injections but obviously the damage to his plastron was deep and maybe he would always have had a weakness there which could become infected.
At least he is no longer in pain but why is it so easy to cry over animals and yet so much more complicated when people die. the anguish is so dreadful that you cant even cry because of the shock and the mixed feelings. then, maybe , when an uncomplicated affection to a harmless little animal comes to an end, all those emotions come out and you cannot stop crying.
Anyway, lots of love from Ruthxxx
🥰
🥰🥰😭😭😭 I can express no other word's....
 

zolasmum

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Hello Angie, that sounds lovely, Zola is such a gorgeous tortoise.
Steve is really very interested and amused by Teztez but he doesn't like to give this away so he pretends to be indifferent and disapproving of my interest and affection for tortoises. he was horrified and very upset because i was so distraught and heartbroken about Pete whom we had reared from a baby, and felt responsible that he had let me become so attached to him during lockdown, and felt it was his fault that it had ended in floods of tears.
i can understand his feeling. Teztez is so robust and self sufficient (apart from loving her soggies) and i feel sure that she could resume her feral type life without much trouble. i spoil her to the nth degree because i love to have something to look after and give lots of tlc.
i do miss Pete so much, he was so energetic like Zola before his terrible accident with the heat lamp. and he fought so hard to recover. i wish i had never stopped the series of injections but obviously the damage to his plastron was deep and maybe he would always have had a weakness there which could become infected.
At least he is no longer in pain but why is it so easy to cry over animals and yet so much more complicated when people die. the anguish is so dreadful that you cant even cry because of the shock and the mixed feelings. then, maybe , when an uncomplicated affection to a harmless little animal comes to an end, all those emotions come out and you cannot stop crying.
Anyway, lots of love from Ruthxxx
Dear Ruth - I do understand - I just cannot imagine life without Zola now, and I think Richard feels the same. Zola goes on his own way, and we try to make his life fun and happy - but it's for our sakes, more than his, in a way - we get so much pleasure from his company . He is our family and we have no-one else we care about more than him now - all our friends from earlier years have lost touch or passed away. Several years ago, we found a little toad outside our back door, on a very cold night - we brought him in and looked after him for two years, and he grew fat and utterly beautiful, but then he died, and we felt guilty that it was our fault in some way. I still cry when I think of him - and Richard, who had sat every evening hand feeding him mealworms for hours, felt his loss just as much, if not more than me.
You did so much for little Pete, but it just wasn't to be,and carrying on with the injections would probably have just prolonged his suffering -not cured him. You wouldn't have wanted that.
Zola sends his love and best wishes - and so do I -and to the lovely Lady Teztez, of course.
Angie xxx
 

zolasmum

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Hello Ruth - this is a photo of me reading to our little rescued toad Bonus - he is so beautiful, isn't he !! We really loved him,and felt, in a way , honoured to have him with us for those two years.
Angie xxx
IMGP1664.jpeg
 

ruthiepo

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He's beautiful Angie!!
It's lovely how animals trust you, like this gorgeous toad and Zola.
Funnily enough it's another thing we have in common!!
A few years ago, we had a lot of tadpoles and reared dozens of little frogs and toads. We released lots into a countryside pond but kept a two toads in a big plastic box with lots of soil and bark and a little pond. We fed them with springtails when they were little and I collected aphids and little spiders for them, then we got containers of calcium worms which they loved as they grew bigger. We dug up worms and found slugs for them. I really enjoyed seeing them grow and we learned lots about them meanwhile. Some of the calci-worms hatched into scary looking black winged flies, but quite harmless. Eventually, there was a really rainy night and in the morning they were gone. They must have just got out and hopped away. I've neverIMG_20191116_091403341 (1).jpgIMG_20191202_120818320 (1).jpg seen them since, but I hope they are somewhere in the vicinity, tucking into the slugs and snails.
Love from Ruth xx
 

zolasmum

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What kind of toad was Bonus?
He's beautiful!!
I think Bonus was just an ordinary sort of toad - he doesn't look much like your chap, though, does he?
Many many years ago, when I was teaching infants in London's East End, a little boy brought a toad to school to show my class. His father had found it, and named it Bonus - I thought that was a wonderful name, and resolved that if I ever had a toad, that's what I would call him. So I did ! I'm afraid that we didn't know a lot about toad care,
but we did our best - I loved his beautiful golden eyes especially.
Your chaps must have had a great life with you, as you obviously knew more about toad care than we did ! I hope you see them again one day.
Zola has had an interesting day today, but I will leave him to tell you about it tomorrow.
Love from Angie xx
 

ruthiepo

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Hello Angie, hope you have a happy weekend. We didn't know anything much about toads, but just read about them as we went along.
You must have had a very interesting life, it sounds very rewarding, teaching children in the East end. You have a lovely face!!
The swifts are well and truly back, nesting in the roof again. its very cheering to hear their calls and high pitched whistling screams.
love to you both and the handsome Zola xxx
 

zolasmum

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Hello Angie, hope you have a happy weekend. We didn't know anything much about toads, but just read about them as we went along.
You must have had a very interesting life, it sounds very rewarding, teaching children in the East end. You have a lovely face!!
The swifts are well and truly back, nesting in the roof again. its very cheering to hear their calls and high pitched whistling screams.
love to you both and the handsome Zola xxx
I really enjoyed teaching in the East End - it was my first job, and I didn't really know what to expect (you could get a teaching job at that time with no training, just a degree -psychology in my case) - the children were very enthusiastic and fun to be with, and their parents were so kind and appreciative - I remember one mum, when she found I had a sore throat one morning, turned up later in the day to bring me a bottle of some hot mixture which she insisted I gargle with straight away - and stood over me while I did so ! The fathers practically all worked in the docks, and were earning good money, so the children were well dressed and fed, but the parents hadn't had much education themselves, as it used to be a very poor deprived area. So they were delighted that their children had better chances than they had done.
Zola is out for a walk with his dad, so I will get him to write later !
Angie
 

zolasmum

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I'm afraid my elderly computer has been playing up, and I've only just got it sorted. Zola has gone to his sleeping box,but I shall make sure he writes to you tomorrow !!
Angie
Hello dear Ruth - I shall be going out for a walk with my dad soon, but I promised to tell you what happened last week. A doctor rang my house, and wanted to speak to Richard, but Angie explained he was taking the tortoise (me) for a walk, and would be back soon.Well, he did ring back later, and was very interested about me, because his little boy had just been given a tortoise
for his birthday, after asking for one for 3 years. Richard had to go in for him to examine his arm, so he said he would bring me too. Anyway, the doctor was so pleased to see me, and Richard gave him a copy of the photo of me with two smaller versions of myself there too -he said it was the best photo ever and his little boy would be so excited to see it. Then he cut a little bit out of Richard's arm !!
The next day, I was on my walk - I walked on some pebbly bits, which was nice - and I met two ladies at different times, who both said they loved me ! I thought that was a bit forward of them, actually. I had never met either of them before. Also I saw a man hitting another man with his bicycle - smashing it on his head - not the sort of thing that happens in sedate Bude !
I hope the lovely Lady is enjoying the sun, and that you are having a pleasant day, dear Ruth
Love from Zola xxx
 

ruthiepo

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Good morning Oh most revered tortoise of my acquaintance!
You have had a most exciting few days, hobnobbing with the doctor and advising on Richard's surgery which sounded very painful. I am glad you could be there and I am sure the doctor's little boy will be inspired by your gorgeous picture.
I'm not surprised that the ladies were enchanted to meet you, perhaps you don't realise the effect that the dizzying combination of your golden shell and adorable legs have on the fortunate people you meet.
I am so glad Richard could keep you safe from the sudden outbreak of bike rage!
We live in surprising times.
I am glad that while winning the Tour de France so time ago, you were never subjected to this level of violence.
Teztez feels a bit anxious, but I have assured her that you have not suffered any injury.
She sends her warmest regards, as do I.
Xxx
 

zolasmum

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Good morning Oh most revered tortoise of my acquaintance!
You have had a most exciting few days, hobnobbing with the doctor and advising on Richard's surgery which sounded very painful. I am glad you could be there and I am sure the doctor's little boy will be inspired by your gorgeous picture.
I'm not surprised that the ladies were enchanted to meet you, perhaps you don't realise the effect that the dizzying combination of your golden shell and adorable legs have on the fortunate people you meet.
I am so glad Richard could keep you safe from the sudden outbreak of bike rage!
We live in surprising times.
I am glad that while winning the Tour de France so time ago, you were never subjected to this level of violence.
Teztez feels a bit anxious, but I have assured her that you have not suffered any injury.
She sends her warmest regards, as do I.
Xxx
Dear guardian of the Supreme Teztez - it has been rainy and cold today, so I only had a short visit to inspect the sea , and have spent most of my time in my conservatory. I don't think I have told you that I have 2 miniature rose bushes there - one pink and one yellow, and I now have 3 tomato plants too - they are growing well. Also some oldish cactus plants - not prickly ones. Maybe I shall get a pretty plant for my birthday- that won't be long now - July 8th. I hope my papa will have a new photo of me to send to my friends - including yourself, of course.
I'm sorry if I worried Teztez about my adventures - my papa is always there with me when I am outside, and he is quite big and strong,and quick to notice any dangers - such as ladies with long fingernails reaching out to me !
I hope you and your precious treasure have a good day tomorrow
With love from Zola xxx
 

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