Joey: The California Desert Tortoise

It was a typical February day, I was working from home, busy on the computer. Evelyn called me. I picked up and our conversation was definitely not one of the top five conversations I would’ve expected. Not top 10, top 50, top 100. Pretty unexpected.

Her uncle had a tortoise that had wandered onto his property years ago and he had just been taking care of it. But he was moving and couldn’t take the tortoise with him. He hadn’t been able to find a place to take the tortoise to and was left with no options. Evelyn wanted to know if it sounded like a good idea for us to take the tortoise in for now, and then that way we could find it a home and not have to be rushed.

The tortoise was hibernating, or doing their version of hibernating. I had no idea they hibernated. I had never owned a tortoise or any type of reptile. We took the tortoise in. It was definitely in a deep sleep, tucked into its shell. It was in a container. Soon after, it began to wake up, so we put it into an old dog crate.

We were expecting this tortoise to stay in hibernation for weeks due to the cold weather. But it was inside our apartment, which was kept at livable temperatures, so it woke up. “Spring is here!”

So, now, we had a tortoise. We were looking for places to bring it to, a sanctuary, a museum, somewhere that could take it. But in the meantime, the tortoise was awake, alert, and probably hungry. We had to determine how to care for a tortoise.

Also, it didn’t even have a name. And we didn’t know it’s gender… or how to determine gender on a tortoise. Not as easy as it is with a dog or cat. They got a shell underneath. So, what do you look for?

We decided on the name Joey. It could work if Joey wound up being a boy or a girl. Later we found out, females have flat under shells and males have concave under shells. Joey’s shell underneath was flat. Joey was a girl.

And now Joey was living in a dog crate in our bedroom, and getting romaine lettuce for breakfast.

We kept looking all the time for places to bring Joey. All while we learned about her, what foods she could eat, and anything else we needed to know.

Joey had energy and strength I didn’t expect. She’s a California Desert Tortoise. Did you know their front arms are strong? And if you give them something climbable… then they will climb it? The dog crate had many bars, almost like rungs in a ladder. And it was tall. So, Joey started climbing the sides of it, but then she would flip herself upside down. I had to help her and turn her over several times. We realized the dog crate wasn’t the ideal little house for her. And we think her climbing was a signal that she wanted to spend some time outside.

So, we bought a tortoise habitat, put that together, and that became her new indoor house. And we began taking her outside, more and more. She loves heading out into the yard and basking in the sun, walking around, eating grass and dandelions, and watching me feed the birds and squirrels. They have become her friends.

Those friends are in addition to all the people who stop to see her. I live near a residential intersection that is fairly busy. So, there is a decent amount of car traffic and foot traffic passing by. And when you think about it, it’s pretty rare that you would see someone out in their yard “walking” their tortoise. Naturally, most people stop to see her. Even if just briefly. But a lot of people stop to ask about her, talk to her, watch her, take pictures of her… we had even begun to have regular visitors. People remember her name. Kids ask their parents if they can come by to see Joey. I’m not joking, people stop in the middle of the intersection when they see her to stare, take a picture, call out to me. People have pulled over just to ask about her.

Several different people now call me Turtle Man. I have now met somewhere between 70-100 people I had never met before. Some of my neighbors who had only exchanged a couple sentences with me before, we’ve now talked great deals, exchanged names, and I see them regularly.

Yep, Joey brings people together. She literally makes so many people happy just when they see her out walking.

We were a bit sad when we finally found a sanctuary that could take her in. It was a few hours away, driving. But we just felt we couldn’t give her the best life possible. We live in an apartment, we can only manage to take her outside so much, what with our schedules. It doesn’t seem like the ideal scenario, granted she seemed pretty happy with it. I even wrote this story about Joey.

But we brought her to the sanctuary, where she would be outside as much as she wanted. Something we couldn’t necessarily give her.

Evelyn felt like it was a bad decision after having dropped her off. She realized upon seeing the facilities that they had too much going on and not enough employees to help take care of all the animals. It didn’t seem as ideal as it did when we saw the place on their site.

A week later, Evelyn went back and got Joey again. Brought her back home. It wasn’t a good situation. Even though she would have more outdoor time, it seemed she wasn’t getting enough care, enough food, we can give her that. So back to our apartment Joey came. It just turned out to be a week-long sleep away camp for her.

Evelyn’s parents said Joey could stay at their place in the yard if we could manage to get an area built for her. There’s a lot that goes into building an area for a tortoise in a yard because they are escape artists. They will dig under fences and get out of peoples’ places all the time. I’ve heard many stories of this. If we can ever find someone who can build something for us at their place, we will do that. Joey can live there, split time between their place and our place, whatever works best. But it is difficult to find someone who can do that for us.

So, Joey is back at our apartment. She has her little house in our place. She goes out for walks 2-3 times a day, usually a total of 2-3 hours a day. Now we know far more about the food she can eat. She gets her romaine lettuce and watercress salad every morning for breakfast and then she and I go out into the yard while I feed the outside animals, drink my first coffee, and we walk around the yard. I will read or write or watch TV on my phone while we wander around. She does her “sprints” which is her walking wherever she desires, and then me scooping her up before she gets to the sidewalk, and bringing her back to our starting point. She actually walks faster than you might imagine. Sometimes I put the phone away and just watch her and enjoy the time outside. Oftentimes, I play music too. I discovered tortoises hear lower frequencies much better, so I made a playlist for Joey. All singers with deeper voices. She’s got the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Barry White, Pearl Jam, Bing Crosby, Billy Idol, David Bowie, and a few others on it. She has eclectic taste.

We head back in later and she chills out til lunchtime. More romaine lettuce and watercress. You can often see what she ate, as she tends to be a messy eater, and gets her food all over her face. Sometimes she gets some of the other foods she can eat at lunchtime. Cucumbers or red peppers or green peppers or apples or bananas. We tried giving her cilantro and parsley. Not a fan. We tried strawberries, nope, not for Joey. If she doesn’t want something she just won’t even eat it. We go out again after her lunch. And then usually I try to take her out once more in the late afternoon or early evening. Usually a quick stroll at 4 or 5. Then, once we’re back inside she is content to sleep the rest of the day.

As I am writing this, I am walking around with Joey in the yard. I’ve actually written quite a few stories while we do our “sprints” in the yard. And Joey has once again pulled one of her famous moves. I think she learns a lot of what I say and what things mean. When it’s about time to head back in, I like to give her a heads up so that we don’t abruptly head back inside. I let her know like a mom or dad tells their kid at the pool “okay, five more minutes!” With Joey I usually tell her, “okay, a couple more sprints then we head in.”

And I always remind her on the last one so she can really cherish it and make it count, “okay, Joey, last sprint and then we head in.” She knows I always let her finish the last sprint. Whatever that means, heading all the way to the sidewalk or the bushes or wherever she is heading to. But she has gotten smart. We won’t go inside until the sprint ends. Oftentimes, like right now, I say, “okay, last sprint and then we head in.” I set her down after having carried her back to her starting point, she takes a couple steps, and then she lays down. I can’t take her in until the sprint is finished, so if she lays down the sprint goes on for longer and she gets more time outside. She does it so often on a “last sprint” that I think she has figured out what it meant. Like when I was a kid and my parents let me play “one more match” of my video game before I had to go to bed and I would pick the one with unlimited time.

She is very smart. And she seems quite sociable as she will walk right up to people when they stop to see her. Sometimes as she is walking towards the sidewalk, if someone is walking past, she will stop and let them cross, because she knows the rules of the road, I guess. I don’t know, I never taught her that.

She’s grown a good deal in the six months we have had her. Not a lot, but she’s grown enough that many of our neighbors have noticed. And she is still growing. The guy at the sanctuary estimated she is in her 20’s. We can’t be certain. We know for certain that she is at least four and a half years old because we have that much time accounted for. But California Desert Tortoises can live long. We read 80 years is expected. 100 isn’t uncommon, especially domesticated ones. And they can even hit 120. So, she is younger than me and has a longer life expectancy than me. I have a feeling that Joey will outlive me, but at least it seems like she will be with us for a very, very long time.

We only had to bring her to the vet once… and it turned out to be nothing. One day Joey started making this noise… this deep, croaking noise. She was doing it repeatedly. We read online there are a variety of reasons they may do that… it could be because food is lodged in her throat, or some other health concern. So, we found an exotic vet and brought her there. Got a checkup. Got X-Rays. She was good. No issues. And no more croaking. And when the vet learned that she stopped croaking once she went outside, she had an interesting opinion.

Perhaps, Joey wanted to spend more time outside. And Joey was living in the apartment with Ginger at that time. And sometimes Ginger would do little barks, little yips, when it was time for her to eat or to go outside. And soon after making a noise, Ginger got what she wanted. And the vet said, tortoises are smart and they can learn really quickly. If Joey recognized this behavior… that Ginger will make noises and then subsequently get what she wants… then, maybe Joey should do the same thing. And it worked. Joey made the noises. Soon after I took her outside… and then she stopped making the noises… and just enjoyed a casual stroll in the yard on a sunny day. We hadn’t been taking her out quite as much at that point. Maybe that was her letting us know she needed more outdoor time. We take her out more often now… and we never hear a complaint… never hear a croak.

Joey is my outdoor buddy. We do our “sprints” and get our steps in. We enjoy the outdoors. We take in sunshine. I’m getting a farmer’s tan and I’ve had to stock up on sunscreen. And we see all Joey’s friends and fans. So many people stop and say hi to her every day. And the people who see her multiple times, she remembers them and reacts to their voices. She has definitely been able to recognize her consistent visitors.

And one of these days I am going to catch a Joey-Stretch-And-Yawn on camera. Because it’s one of my favorite things to see. That, and her yoga poses when she gets really comfortable.

When her arms and legs and head are all stretched out, she is really comfy.

Especially when she has her heating pad in her house. She loves that thing.

But she has several poses that she relaxes in. If I knew anything about yoga I could probably determine her skill level.

She has downward facing tortoise nailed, I know that much.

Joey met Ginger, our dog, before she passed. They never got too close but they had seen each other and were aware of one another. They’d chill in the same room together on multiple occasions. Ginger was Joey’s sister. Her other sister is Peggy, our guinea pig. Funny enough, Joey and Peggy eat a lot of the same foods. So, it’s easy enough to shop for them. Romaine lettuce has become a staple in this house. There has to always be multiple heads of romaine lettuce at the ready.

The longer we have Joey, the more her personality shines through. The more we learn about her likes and her habits and mannerisms. We can tell when she is eager to go outside. She stands tall in her house and cranes her neck up to look around and has a very specific look on her face. One that can definitely be described as eager. She does enjoy to be pet. Perhaps not as much as the typical dog or cat. But she likes to have her shell rubbed, she enjoys gentle petting on her head and enjoys gentle massaging on her arms and legs at times.

And she loves the sun. Joey in the sun is five times faster than Joey on a cloudy day. She is a little solar panel and soaks up that sunshine and turns it into energy.

She’s a great little girl. I didn’t expect that she would be in my life and then just one day she was. But I’m so glad she is in my life. I’m happy that we can help to give her a good life and happy she returns joy right back to us. Not everything in life goes how you try to plan it. And that’s okay. In fact, it may even be better that way.