Margarit
-- or "daisy" in Romanian -- came to live with us in
July, 1999. She had been rescued thirty years earlier from a
neighbour in Bucuresti who was planning to make a bowl out of
her shell :-(. When Margarit lived in Romania, she had free run of the terrace in spring and the garden in
Campulung-Muscel in summer.
During the
fall and winter Margarit
hibernates, coming out occasionally for a bite to eat, but
mostly she's sleeping between mid-October and early April. Her
species is Testudo graeca, or Greek tortoise, and she's originally from the Dobrugea region near the Black
Sea. A land tortoise, she eats only plants, preferably leafy
ones like dandelion and lettuces. Her favourite foods are
strawberries -- which she gets only as a treat because they
contain too much sugar -- and flowers (that's how she got her
name). Amongst our nicknames for her are PT Cruiser and
Godzilla Junior.
We had
some trouble bringing her here to the US from Romania, but once
it was worked out she seemed to settle in very nicely. Margarit
has her own tank with a separate cardboard "house" in
the winter, but in good weather we let her walk around the
kitchen and part of the dining room. She knows her hiding places
and where she gets fed, and is usually pretty content (and
pretty well-fed!). The cats still haven't figured her out, and
usually run away when they see her coming. Margarit would really
like to be friends with them -- especially she'd like to snuggle
up with them when it's chilly :-). Sometimes she comes over to
us when we're on the sofa and "asks" us to pick her up
and put her on our lap. In good weather we like to take her
outside with us.
Here are
some pictures of our precious Margarit. She's really a joy to
have around, except when she walks through the cat food plates
:-(. Hmmm, I think that's what I hear her doing right now ...
