Thursday, December 31, 2009

Phoebe the Night Crawler

Sometimes it's Hector, sometimes it's Phoebe, but one or both of them frequently decide that they've slept too much that day so they take a late-night stroll.  Last night Phoebe decided that 11:00 pm was an appropriate time to go clambering over the rocks in her vivarium.  In case you are unaware, Greek Tortoises are not known for their grace, and Phoebe is no exception.  For about ten minutes she was scraping around the vivarium having a grand time while we were trying to sleep.  I considered giving her a little snack but I was afraid that might keep her up longer and even wake up Hector (if he was even asleep still).  Fortunately, sleep took her again and, eventually, so it did us.

In this case, Phoebe wasn't really active for too long. Our first Greek Tortoise, Sampson I, would often get a second wind at night!  I remember one night in particular that he was clawing around for 30+ minutes; and though he was in the next room, he was so loud that we could not get to sleep.  Finally, I turned off his red night light hoping that if he couldn't see at all and he cooled-down some more that he would go to sleep.  Though it wasn't an immediate fix, he was quiet within a few minutes and we finally slept soon thereafter.

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