Difficult choices.......

Passing through City Stars mall the other day we came across a little pet stall that had a very small glass box containing a small tortoise. The kids were keen to liberate the rather sad little thing from his (or her) prison but I had misgivings. I'm familiar with the shelled ones: I grew up with a Greek tortoise (Jimmy), these were common in the 60s and 70s in the UK but are now much rarer (and rightly so). Only captive bred ones are available now as the native populations have sadly collapsed. In New Orleans we had a couple of very young captive bred Red Foot Tortoises (Lewis and Deuce). These lovable chaps still live in Louisiana and have survived Katrina and all storms those that came after.

I had misgivings about liberating the tortoise as I thought it was an Egyptian tortoise, which is an endangered species in its restricted homelands of North Africa. Long story short, and difficult choice, we decided to "spring" Jonny Rocket from his constrained captivity on the proviso that we would get a mate for Jonny and attempt to breed them. Difficult choice though, do not want to create a market for these beautiful little creatures, but he was in such a sad state we had to do something, and if we can get a little "action" going perhaps we can help the total numbers and try and get some re-entered into the wild in some of the wildlife reserves in the Sinai. In the meantime heres a few photos of Rocket as (probably she) is affectionately known, enjoying running around the garden like a little reptilian Usain Bolt.