jeanoappleseed on Nostr: Tonight we say “Good night & see you next Spring” to #AndyTheTortoise as he ends ...

Tonight we say “Good night & see you next Spring” to #AndyTheTortoise as he ends his 104th sunbathing season.

Andy was found in 1936, age 15, wandering on a desert road nr Pyramid Lake NV. The finder was a mason from the SF Bay Area, out in the NV desert for a bricklaying job.

Andy had been written on his shell so he was a pet, not wild. He took Andy back to his house in the Bay Area where Andy lived with him, then his daughter, for the next 74 years.

We became the daughter’s neighbors, then good friends in the 1990s when I worked in SF & when she had to move into
Assisted living in 2010, Andy came to live with us in SoCal, where he has been enjoying his retirement for the last 14 years.

Tonight is the beginning of his yearly brumation which lasts ~6 months, during which he is kept cool & dormant. He neither eats nor drinks.

Here he is during his hydration bath & subsequent air/sun drying. He then goes into his big cooler (for temperature stability) lined with towels where he will be in the dark the entire time, sleeping & chilling, literally and figuratively. I check on him from time to time but no more than once weekly just to make sure he has reflexes & is doing well. He normally hisses as soon as I open the lid which normally confirms all is fine.

I feel so honored to have been chosen as his keeper ♥️