Well... You asked for it.
@MantisGirl13 and
@Prayingmantisqueen !
A long time ago me and my mom were strolling through a petstore. We both coincidentally see a "Russian Tortoise" at the same time, and walk towards it. We both were absolutely delighted when we saw the cute little guy! We looked at the price, aaaannd our wallets tugged us away. We both made a pact, that if we could buy it, we would. I spent weeks daydreaming about a little pet tortoise. He would be my next best friend! I would sleep with him, play games with him, teach him tricks, all that nonsense. Essentially treat him like a wrinkly puppy. But in my heart I knew I would never get to hold him...
My next birthday, my dad brings me somewhere. (Don't remember where, not important to the story) I come back to see a table in the corner of the living room. I see a large rectangular shape under a sheet. My Mom pulls the sheet off, "Suprise! Happy birthday [insert nickname here]" And there it is in all its glory, my tortoise! I rush ecstatically over thanking my mother as if she just saved my life! I was (needless to say) very happy! The next few days were spent admireing it, caring for it, but not exactly "playing with it". I absent-mindedly placed my finger on the glass, staring at Ninja (that's what I named him, I was a bit of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fanatic when I was little) hardly believeing he was mine. When a ping alerts my ears, my eyes catch something moving in the enclosure... It was Ninja! Moving at (for a tortoise) an unbelievable pace! He rushes to my finger (thankfully on the other side of the glass) and smashes his head against it, jaws wide. His tounge lolling on one side of his mouth, drooling out of the corner of his mouth, all whilst his head is smashing against the glass where my finger is, jaws snapping. I shrieked and my sister slapped my hand to get me to move it. For once, I was terrified of my beloved turtle. Fast forward many of these evil attack incidents later.
Im hand feeding, now more comfortable. When he pulls the lettuce out of my hand and tries chomping my hand. I get my hand out of the enclosure just in time. Even my Mom became much more cautious around the turtle. Fast forward a couple more years. He was very passive, given up his aggressive behavior. Almost as if he was depressed. He would eat, sleep and do his needed stuff normally. But he wasn't acting the same. No more aggressiveness. Well, I won't go as far as saying that. He still was aggressive, but only to keep us away from him. No more hand feeding, or stroking his shell. A few months of this behavior led to our belief that he was depressed. Same lifestyle, same food, same enclosure, same people everday wasn't cutting it. We sadly for some family members (and pretty happily to others) donated him to a better home. We hope he is leading a tortoises dream now! Now you've met "
Ninja, my evil depressed tortoise."
