Saying Good-Bye to Nacho, our Tortoise

After almost 9 years with my tortoise (Nacho), we had to return him to the reptile zoo over the weekend.

We have lived in 6 different cities together, we've grown up- he's been with me as I met my husband, we've had 2 dogs, 1 kitten, tons of fish, a baby... moved to apartments, condos, bought a home.. it's been such an adventure!

He was such a smart, stubborn and funny tortoise. When I first got him, he was the size of a ping pong ball... last Saturday, he was the size of our laundry basket... HUGE. He was so big that I couldn't even life him anymore!

When he was small enough, we dressed up for halloween.. christmas... we had a blast!

But as the years
two weeks ago, he pushed our patio chair into the pool...

once we installed our pool gate, things with nacho went from bad to HOLY HELL... within 24 hours, he ripped our gate, stomped through our flower bed (that he's NEVER touched in over 2 years)... so we thought he wanted to be on the other side of our gate... so we quickly moved him to the other side. He went into hiding... and when he woke... hell hath no fury as a tortoise scorn... he immediately went and tried to rip our gate down.

It makes me really sad that I didn't keep him for at least 10 years, but I had to think about what was best for him and what was best for my family- With his aggressive behavior, I was afraid that he could bite or one day bite Landon. We already walk on eggshells because he tends to come running into the house when we leave the door open- In fact, we bought a house without sliding glass doors because Nacho can open a sliding glass door.. come in and terrorize our dogs.

So, its been an adventure and I'm sad that we had to say good bye. Good Luck Nacho! I hope you get a chance to find some love and make some babies!