It was roughly 37 years ago when Tommy, as you'll see in the following video clip from Brighteon.com, was picked up by the side of the road in the Southwest by his adopted mother, Patricia.
Tommy the Tortoise has lived with Patricia at her home for almost 40 years
She saw him trying to cross the road and felt compelled to pick him up and make him her own. Though she regrets taking him out of his natural habitat, Patricia has been lovingly caring for Tommy ever since, offering him plenty of tedious affection and tender loving care.
"He spends summers during the day in my backyard where he has clover and grass, and he eats those fresh," says Patricia. "And then, I chop up lettuces and cucumbers and other things, and he eats those. And he suns himself in his little yard."
"You have to give him organic foods because he doesn't use a lot of water in his system, so if you don't use organic foods, poisons would build up over time and hurt him," she adds.
In the wintertime, Tommy spends most of his time hibernating in Patricia's closet, only to reemerge once the weather gets warmer to spend time with his "one-of-a-kind lover," as Patricia calls Tommy's life mate.
"I have a girlfriend for him," Patricia explains. "She's a heavy statue, and he loves her. That's Mrs. Tommy Tortoise. She's like his wife, and he wants to stay home with his wife."
Patricia expects that she will die before Tommy does, which is why she's trying to find him a new home now
Patricia would love to keep Tommy until the end of his life, except for the fact that desert tortoises tend to live very long lives, often to the age of 100. Patricia is currently 74, and she fears that Tommy may outlive her, thus leaving him with no place to go, and with nobody to love him.
"I love him a lot, and I'm going to miss him," Patricia laments. "But I have to find a home for him, I just have to. And I'm hoping he can go back out west where he belongs."
Patricia would just release Tommy back into the desert if that were an option. But because he's been domesticated in her home and yard for nearly four decades, this is no longer an option.
"He has to be in the care of a group or a person," she says.
"I hope someone that has the patience and the goodwill and the property to take care of him. You can't just have him in an apartment. He has to have property. But he's a lovely guy."
With the help of The Citizen Times, her local newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as readers such as yourself, Patricia is hoping to find Tommy a new home, along with a new, loving owner who will care for Tommy, long before she passes.
"Please help me," Patricia says. "You'll like Tommy. Tommy is a good guy, and he's worth the effort, he really is.
If you're interested in adopting Tommy, or know someone else who might be interested, please email The Citizen Times at [email protected]. Be sure to put "Tommy the tortoise" in the subject line.
For more news about living a simple life in harmony with animals and nature, be sure to check out LivingFree.news.
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.
