Thank you for the kind words. Jo Jo has and is giving our family more than we could ever do for her. She is the knight in shining armor or Shelled Armor.Wow what a story! Started crying at the first post, then crying and smiling simultaneously as the story progressed. My vocabulary isn't big enough to describe the emotion from reading this.
So happy that Jojo has been rescued.
You and your wife are her 'knight in shining armor'.
She looks wonderful ! Quite at home in her little kingdom - as she deserves to be.
This is EXACTLY what we are thinking needs to be done. She is growing so good we are afraid in the 4 months ish she has grown "longer" and the supports are holding her back.
That does sound like a good idea - and may I suggest that every month or so you put JoJo flat , on a piece of paper and draw a line round the edge of her shell, keeping the pencil as upright as possible - cut the paper shape out - then you can lay it under the previous one each time, so you can get a better idea of which bits of her shell have grown and expanded - that might help to determine whether the supports need adjusting.
This is such a good idea, fantastic idea.
It's wonderful that JoJo's plastron is mending so well - are you going to take the other support off so you can see better how it's going, or leave it and just replace the other one?
Just a thought - I wondered if a length of dental floss - the kind which has a long plastic threading bit at the end -could be threaded through the middle of the space between the plastron and the support, and pulled about gently - even with a tiny bit of acetone on it , to help loosen it ? I don't think acetone would harm her shell, as it is used as nail polish remover. Probably a silly idea, but I had to tell you, just in case !
I'm sorry about that, after all your efforts- it must be very frustrating - however, another month will give you a chance to check out any other ways of getting it off - maybe someone on the forum would have bright ideas - I was thinking about people who do craft work of some kind that might involve solvents or tools that might help. Anyway, JoJo is clearly having a good time and enjoying life, which is just wonderful !
I hope all is going well with JoJo - and of course you and your wife as well ! We have had some awful weather here, but hope tomorrow will be sunny, in which case we will take Zola to a wood we know where there are lots of wild bluebells. We go every year - I think Zola likes the colour and the scent a lot - he gets quite excited -but we don't let him off the path, as I'm afraid he might try to eat them ! Do you have bluebells in the USA ? We usually start taking him to some of the stately homes in the area about now, as they tend to have lovely gardens, and we can hold him up to look at the beautiful flowers -again, it's been too wet and cold to go anywhere like that just yet.
I haven't been able to send you a photo of the bluebells yet, as they are later in the wood than elsewhere,but I thought you might like to see a picture which includes the breakwater where Zola walks. It is on the far right of the photo - there is a tiny person on it, which gives you an idea of the scale - and a tiny person in a red coat at the very bottom of the photo in the middle, on the sand, in a red coat. So it is pretty long way for a little tortoise !
