Pancho the Ecuadorian Tortoise Diary Vol 3

photo: Pancho sniffing my feet.

Most people would assume that simple minded animals are easy to control and are painlessly easy to have as pets. However, that is far from the truth in my case. My pet Pancho is not a simple animal, in fact he is a very complicated and disturbed animal. As you may recall from a blog insert several months ago Pancho´s new turtle lover. You see Pancho has been locked up in a small Peruvian garden for the past 4 years. His only companions were my rottweiler and a dumb parrot. Well, when I put a female tortoise in the garden love filled the air instantaneously. They were soooo in love and at one point I knew I would have turtle babies. As the months came along their love grew cold and Pancho turned against his lover for some turtle reason that I don´t understand. Pancho would bite her legs, ram her with his shell and would chase her until she would find a corner in the yard and stay there for days. I finally took my female tortoise away from Pancho when he bit out her eye. Pancho grew from lover to killer! The following months Pancho resented the fact that I took his girl from him. Yes he had a right to be mad. Wouldn´t you feel pissed off if you were alone for years and then your dream mate came into your life only to be taken away from you unexpectedly? Well, I never imagined that Pancho would ever use his anger on me! For the past 3 months or so I have been battling with this tortoise. He attacks me. He spots me out in the yard and runs towards me. He goes for me toes, my ankles and leaves me paranoid at times especially at night when I can´t see him. I get so frustrated with him and he is only a turtle. Have you ever been pissed off at a turtle? I try to reason with myself and say that he just thinks my toes are worms. But I know the truth, he is telling me who is in charge in the garden. I´m beginning to think its not me.