The day the kids broke a tortoise.

Going through photographs for todays blog - I chanced upon a series of pics taken a year or so ago of an incident which remains a rather vivid skeleton in our family closet - the day the kids broke the tortoise. So for today I shall put aside the tales of our South African travels, and 'fess up to a somewhat sordid affair.

This must have happened about a year ago - if not more. And the culprit was Courtney - my youngest daughter. And I must add that it was not the first time that the kids squeezed an animal with a little too much vigour - we had a 'Russian hamster' who had to be thrown away after a particularly enthusiastic cuddle rendered him lifeless!

This is a photo of Courtney as she is today - crossing the bridge into South Africa....

And this is Courtney and her sister Dayna about a year ago - cuddling up to an African Giant tortoise..



Unfortunately they loved him too much - and when Courtney gave him an overly firm squeeze - air started suddenly escaping from his bottom, and he began to lose all rigidity....

The hissing sound of escaping air went on...... and on....... and on............ Until eventually, much to our horror....

We put the (now) much smaller tortoise down, made our way quietly back to the car, and left as quickly as possible. To this day I imagine no-one quite knows what happened to the tortoise - but it was all just a little too much love!

Have a really great day!