This GORGEOUS creature above left is SPICE, she is from Greek decent 🙂 and my all time favorite animal. I got her in 1998. She is so peaceful and calm, so polite how she takes the leaves gently from your hand and she even comes to me (as quickly as she can) when I call her name!
She has huge eyes,which you can’t see, sadly, in these photos. The turtle tattoo I got on my ankle was drawn from a photo of Spice. (I am having it covered with a flower as no one can tell it is a turtle and I am tired of explaining it is Spice from a front view).
The second photo is Spice on the left and SUGAR on the right. I got Sugar a few months before Spice. No one can tell if Sugar is male or female yet! I think she is a girl, as she hisses and acts bitchy. She always looks grumpy and if she could say “talk to the hand” she would. Sugar is of Afganistan decent, the tiny little Arab!
I adore them SO MUCH. They are the ONLY things in the world that can calm me down. Watching them eat and walk around makes me relax. I wish I could have them with me all the time, but it wouldn’t be possible or fair. The breeder I bought them from , I call him, Mr. Turtle, watches them for me until I settle down. He lives in Berlin in a HUGE house and has a giant Turtle farm. He has over 70 turtles and does sell them, but he makes you sign papers and they cost A LOT. He is a BIG turlte fan and doesn’t just breed them to make money. He is a real estate broker and is rolling in dough, he just does the turtle thing as a hobby.
He has had some of his turtles for 35 years! They live to be over 100 years old so even if I pick my babies up in 5 years, it’s cool. I visit them most every time I go to Berlin and he sends me photos of them. They are an endangered animals so you can’t just drag them around with you from country to country. I miss my babies
I had another one, Pepper, who recently passed away. He was given to me a couple years ago, a Polish turtle. Mr. Turtle told me he died of HERPES! I was like “what? Did he have unsafe sex or what? How does a turtle get herpes!?” Apparently, it is a virus that strikes animals too, not through sex though and Pepper passed away. RIP Pepper 🙁