Happy hatchday Gus!

We were lucky enough to be invited to Gus the Galapagos Tortoise’s hatchday party again this year, and were so excited to attend, especially after seeing the cool bash he had last year.

Gus turned 25 this year – a quarter of a century old (and only a quarter of his expected lifetime of about a hundred years). Wow! Gus and his buds live in a private residence that has been turned into a tortoise wonderland. We got all gussied up for the occasion -- the girls in their new Wela-made turtle shirts, and I in my best party flip flops (I know, I know, no one wears white pants to a tortoise habitat – it’s just that I had a baby shower immediately following the hatchday affair and no time to change).

The girls looked so cute (for heaven’s sake, I always say that don’t I!!). Ree in white shirt, Ro in yellow.

We brought flowers for Gus’s parents (we looked for those pecan and caramel turtle candies but couldn’t find them, darn!), and two heads (stalks? bunches? What the heck do you call them?) of celery for the party host and his mammoth reptilian buds.

We’re happy to report that no fingers were lost during the festivities. But please notice that this enormous tortoise had actually climbed up on the fence and was leaning wayyyyyyyy toward the girls in his extreme enthusiasm for that banana. Yikes!

I liked this double-celery feeding. Twin tortoise treats, if you will. Heh.

Just to give you an idea of size, here’s Gus, the birthday boy himself, next to our bitty babies. Gus is well over 400 pounds:

And here’s a teeny little mite named Francesca. (Note the girls’ effortless crouch, which apparently is good in any situation, even tortoise feeding):

One tortoise decided the fastest way to the other side was through this lady’s legs and gave her a firm nudge. Who’s going to argue in that situation?

Ree was pretty brave, darting into the pen and petting any tortoise who ambled by:

One of the tortoises was named #8 (I think it was that guy at the end) but we called him Ocho Cinco the whole time and cracked ourselves up. Hee:

Mmm, they didn’t so much go for corn-on-the-cob as corn-on-the-face:

Happy hatchday Gus, and thanks for inviting us to your crazy-fun party again!