Absolutely Adorable.

I think all baby animals are adorable (maybe some more than others... pelican chicks are not exactly attractive), but little tortoises sleeping are near the top of my list. I completely admit my bias, since it was my own little tort (Artemis - an Ibera Greek) in this case, but I love seeing pics of other folks' torties sleeping too! But seriously, look at this, try to tell me it's not absolutely adorable:



He was not exactly thrilled with my flash in his face, but he only woke up a little to try glare at me. He was fairly unsucessful in my opinion, he's still unbearably cute. :-P



Yes, I know... now you're wondering what the heck his "double shell" of silver is. It's easiest to answer with a photo:



Yeaaaaaah, that's one of his hides. On nights that he doesn't feel like burrowing, he often does this. As for why he sticks his head out, beats me!! Though I feel I should mention that after I disturbed him SO much (sense the sarcasm? 3 pictures, please) he did burrow into his aspen and cannot be seen anymore. Apparently he should have a "NO paparazzi!!" sign on his shell!

Artemis is going to have his first birthday a week after mine, on the 26th! <3 He has grown so much. I wish I'd taken regular shots of him next to something like a quarter to show his growth, but I fail in that department. I'll poke through the pics of when I got him sometime soon and see if there is anything that gives some scale. I've really loved having him, he's just hilarious. He has a very distinct personality and believe you me, he let's me have it when I am late with his lunch!!


In other news, Perdi still hasn't laid, the little punk. Maybe she's holding out for Father's Day/my birthday (Sunday, the 19th). That would be fine, but so would sooner! I also candled the eggs again tonight - I was right about the iffy egg of Panic's, it was indeed infertile and went moldy. The other egg looks absolutely perfect though and has a beautiful cheerio! I candled Liebchen's set again just out of curiosity (I don't usually handle my eggs this much but this is already a weird year and I'm carefully keeping an eye on things), and one is coming along nicely, though the other looks to be developing incorrectly. So I'm gonna guess only one of those ends up hatching. Who knows! With virgin females, it's always a roll of the dice. But there are still many months left in the breeding season and I'm not concerned. :)