Mary K (warning..long and boring)

Hippytort

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Great story Maggie! Glad it turned out good.
Only thing is I wonder...did you have your drunk neighbor hang the picture (the upper one on the right) in your living room? lol
 

Cathie G

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Great story Maggie! Glad it turned out good.
Only thing is I wonder...did you have your drunk neighbor hang the picture (the upper one on the right) in your living room? lol
What's really funny is I have floating pictures like that too. When you have big critters banging around stuff happens ?
 

Maggie3fan

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I am so happy to read this, I was worrying about Mary.
What a great neighbour to come out and help you at that time of night - definitely worth a few beers (at least) I think!!?????
I hope she doesn't cause any more problems for you - but somehow I don't think that's likely!!!:rolleyes::)
I bought him a 6 pack...:)
 

Maggie3fan

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Great story Maggie! Glad it turned out good.
Only thing is I wonder...did you have your drunk neighbor hang the picture (the upper one on the right) in your living room? lol
So I pour my freakin heart out and you point out my lack of decorating skills! Geesh!
This is a close up of the picture...
100_1305.JPG
 

Nash

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Maggie your stories with Mary Knobbins needs to be told over and over again. People need to "get it". They are bull dozers and have a mind of their own. They aren't for just anyone. People have got to understand it takes a huge commitment and for a very long time. Thank you for sharing. I hope you didn't get pneumonia through all of this. What a wonderful friend you have in that neighbor!
 

Cyncyn1

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Generally when I post something I try to be informative or funny...this is none of those...I got medically retired from my career as an over the road truck driver or otr...and I started hanging out with my sister at her turtle and tortoise rescue and one day she says to me...I have too many male Sulcata here will you take this one and keep him until I find a home for him about 2 weeks...His name was Bob and I loved him so...He was 8 lbs and unknown how old but life goes on and I needed to move to Oregon I ended up with a small special needs turtle and tortoise rescue. I was good at treating and rehab who knew??? and I moved here with somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 box turtles and Bob, the 2 weeks was nowa buncha years and more Sulcata came and went...hey Y remember that 120+ Sulcata who's keepers drove from Seattle with this monster Sulcata who only ate carrots...he lived on freakin carrots but was he was big and beautiful...I hadda rent a van for him and his carrots to Y's house.anyway that is kinda how I got interested in Sulcata. So numerous tortoises after Bob, and now it's Mary Knobbins. My sister taught me a whole lotta stuff 20 years ago that has held sted to this day. The animals come first. Period... no matter how sick you are feed the ones who need feeding...you do what it takes. Anyway...I'm getting off track (as usual) This about 5-6 pounds tortoise was found wandering the streets of downtown Portland Oregon during one of The Proud Boys riots and brought to our local wildlife rescue who called me right away cuz they don't do tortoises...they were pretty sure it was a Russian..it was Knobby...here on my far left. I wish I had that many Sulcata today...:( oh heck...I can't find it...
So now I have this badly pyramided ugly Sulcata. I thought he looked like a dirt bike tire hence the name Knobby...time passes tortoises come and go, but nobody wanted Knobby. However he was developing a personality that kept me hopping...and I am telling you all this because it was pointed out to me that there are some members here who questioned the birdbath photo...here is why...Knobby cannot stand this bird bath and he knowed it over as many times as I put it back up...
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so some years pass and somehow I got really good at what I did...I virtually have no formal education outside of truck driving and AHT...so time passes and Knobby becomes Mary Knobbins, renamed by someone who loves Mary or Knobby. and a sex change operation...most readers here understand how I feel about Mary K...however...most of you here read about how Mary seemed to not feel good wasn't going outside normally.wasn't eating etc.so I decided that in 40 degree weather to give this 35+lb tortoise a soak...so...here's my tort shed...
View attachment 337177
I was cutting down trees...anyway, I put the tote in her shed...then carrying 3 one gallon jugs at a time, I walked across the deck, up 8 stairs into the house in order to fill the tote deep enuf for a 35 pound tort...physically it was hard after the 4th trip, my bad bad was killing me, my lungs evidently stopped working...it started to rain...even God is pissing on me...but I plodded on...I really don't know how many trips I made 8 or more? I do know that on the last trip...when I went into the shed with sympathy in my heart... that beast of a tortoise had urinated a gallon and was eating. I really got irritated..."Mary don't you understand what I just did for you...and then you flaunt that there is nothing wrong with you"?? So I soaked her anyway and went in the house pouting and really thinking hard...do other keepers go to the extent I do? Is that extent really important? Then I hadda wait for my strong neighbor to empty the tote. The extent of care goes out to my yards and pens...everything except for a few things is grown for the torts. I worry about grass and blooms and leaves...My electric bill is high because of all the UVB CHE's heaters and crap. I also have birds and cats that I don't worry about like I do the chelonia. My Safeway store saves their old produce for me but if I don't have gas or am feeling sick I have to ask someone else.
I guess I am having thoughts like...if I didn't have these torts or turtle I could have naps, or read a book or just watch tv. Wash my car, go to a movie. If I downsized my animals I could travel nowView attachment 337180 before I can't. Maybe it's past time thinking about that I need to do something...
there are 7 bird cages in my living room...noisy messy but not much care..here's half of my living room....I could keep going but my thoughts are this...maybe I would have an easier live without the chelonia...my second thought was this...omg! Last night I went to close Mary's doggie door and the other 4 tortoise were tucked into their sleeping spots and Mary was not visible in the shed...I looked into her sleeping box, oh crap!!! Back out to her pen and did another scan...the gate is open...and Mary K is gone... really and seriously...gone to be continuedView attachment 337180
I am so sorry she is gone! I love my babies and would be devistated!
 

tortlvr

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Mary K continued...
So I walked my neighborhood and pretty soon people who I don't know were coming up to me and saying...hey we are helping a friend of ours, have you seen a big tortoise around here? lol...cute. When Bob would escaped he always went up the stairs and out to the street, so that's what I figured with Mary...roaming the streets. It's starting to get dark and when I realized that, it felt like I had been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer...it's in the low 30s at night now and I know that Mary couldn't live through that it would kill her so now I'm panicked... the guy that I usually get to help is gone as he likes to drink and chase women... so I won't have a chance with him until he comes home, I left a note on his front door so I go to into the house I'm distraught and I don't know what to do so I did nothing I just sat on the couch and cried for a little bit and then I just sort of sat there until I went to sleep I guess because this pounding on my door at 12:30 in the very early morning woke me upright on the couch until I wouldn't answer the door is him yeah he was drunk but I told him my problem and that you know she was lost and I'm scared blah blah blah so he and I walked around Mary's pen so he could see what I was talking about. and he points at a place where the skirting panel was missing...
View attachment 337196
I tell him that's where I throw poison for the rats as I am out run with them...he says he doesn't like rodents and it's full of Brown Recluse spiders and webs...but he puts his long hair up in a bun, pulls up his hoodie and asks me how far I had been under, about 2 inches I said...drunks are very judgemental, ya know.
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So he sneers and dives in under my manufactured home which is full of vermin, lets not forget the rats, voles and possums. too scary for me. In less than 2 minutes he hollers there she is! He said that she was as far away from the entrance here as she could get and so I went around and we pulled off some skirting around the other side and he asks can I pick her up or what? I say can you stand up there? He called me a rudish name and started pushing her towards me, I now have the flash light so I can see her beefy front legs stretched out in front of her and she is pushing back against him as hard as she could. This guy is over 6 ft maybe 250
I said well just don't put your fingers in her in her leg holes then he hollered as he put a finger in a leg hole and she burned some flesh off his fingers, I told ya. then so he's pushing her and I'm holding the flashlight and I know that spiders are climbing in my hair down my back and I can feel them... it's no exaggeration but anyway so he's hollering at me about how strong that tortoise is and he's pushing pushing pushing her and finally gets her close to me and I'm helping as much as I can she really was fighting him and now me. Damn her to hell what is going on. possible I was weak as by now it's 1 am...lol...I know this isn't funny. but I don't feel funny about this. this felt about the same as my first ex husband sleeping with my other sister...
This morning when I went in, she was in her box with her head out so I sat down in front of her and reached to rub her carapace she shot her head in, sounding like a hiss and she jumped at me! Really Mary? So I reached again and she jumped again. I guess she is mad that I found her, and now I'm mad that I found her...
Not boring at all! Spent lots of time and energy raising my
torts block wall to 3. This is what i came home to.
I get so frustrated. No one seems to share my passion or help me with any degree of concern that pairs need to live separate. Feeling your pain. Glad you found her.
 

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Hippytort

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So I pour my freakin heart out and you point out my lack of decorating skills! Geesh!
This is a close up of the picture...
View attachment 337246
LOL I really hope you are saying that in fun! I was just messing with ya. I actually like your living room.
Personally I like seeing a house full of animals! You'll never see animal lovers as mean people!
 

Maggie3fan

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LOL I really hope you are saying that in fun! I was just messing with ya. I actually like your living room.
Personally I like seeing a house full of animals! You'll never see animal lovers as mean people!
Frankly, my third ex-husband told a judge that I was as mean as a snake and just as dangerous.
And of course I was just funniness. When I'm serious there is no doubt. I love it when someone makes a funny at my expense...it's all good...:) as long as it IS funny :)
 

Maggie3fan

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Not boring at all! Spent lots of time and energy raising my
torts block wall to 3. This is what i came home to.
I get so frustrated. No one seems to share my passion or help me with any degree of concern that pairs need to live separate. Feeling your pain. Glad you found her.
That picture is so familiar to me..lol...are your blocks staggered? That helps. Also when my big Sulcata was doing that (oh man I share your frustration) I took a wide fence slat and laid it across the top blocks the put 2 blocks on the wood. He will hit his head a few times and go somewhere else. It worked for Bob
 

Maro2Bear

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Not boring at all! Spent lots of time and energy raising my
torts block wall to 3. This is what i came home to.
I get so frustrated. No one seems to share my passion or help me with any degree of concern that pairs need to live separate. Feeling your pain. Glad you found her.

Looks like you are missing some vertical rebar hammered down through the layers of concrete blocks. Or, you have them & your bulldozer knew just where to push.
 

Yvonne G

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Not boring at all! Spent lots of time and energy raising my
torts block wall to 3. This is what i came home to.
I get so frustrated. No one seems to share my passion or help me with any degree of concern that pairs need to live separate. Feeling your pain. Glad you found her.
LOL! If you can't open the gate, break down the wall!!!
 

Cathie G

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Frankly, my third ex-husband told a judge that I was as mean as a snake and just as dangerous.
And of course I was just funniness. When I'm serious there is no doubt. I love it when someone makes a funny at my expense...it's all good...:) as long as it IS funny :)
What did that stupid man do to you that needed a thrashing? I'm sure it was his fault ? the ?head
 

Marshmellow

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You are a great story teller, do you have someone lined up to take all your animals in the event of your death? I worry because I purchased a hatchling sulcata one night over the internet, after drinking way to much and now I've had her 1 year and a half and she's cute and I enjoy caring for her but I'm over 60 and no one in my family wants to inherit her. I worry what will happen when I die. No one needs to tell me how irresponsible it was, I know.
 

Oxalis

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Not boring at all! Spent lots of time and energy raising my
torts block wall to 3. This is what i came home to.
I get so frustrated. No one seems to share my passion or help me with any degree of concern that pairs need to live separate. Feeling your pain. Glad you found her.
That could use some cement.
 

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