When a Dog Loves a Tortoise

This was my dog Bella at Christmas. She is a Lhasa Apso and on this Valentine's day, I wanted to tell you all about her latest love. You see, she loves her dad - me - like no other. She follows me around everywhere, listens to almost everything I say and enjoys her daddy snuggles. She is the best behaved dog I have ever had. Yet, her love for me is now shared by another...

This is Billy. He is a tortoise, as I am sure you guessed. A Hermann's tortoise to be precise. We had him in October and is unlike any tortoise I have ever known. Admittedly I have not known many tortoises during my lifetime, but Billy is somewhat out of the norm for what I expected a tortoise to be. During his waking hours he constantly makes laps of his vivarium. He may well be the fastest tortoise in the world. He also enjoys jumping from the top of his little house, a stunt-tortoise if you will.

Naturally, Bella quickly grew fascinated by him. She accepts most other animals, she even has her own cat she loves - although his feelings for her are quite colder. If we let Billy out for a run around the room, she follows him, sniffs him as dogs are wont to do and gives him a friendly lick. I swear one day she with catch salmonella from him, she won't be told.

Occasionally we leave the glass door to his vivarium open a little to air somewhat. We started noticing that if we left the room, the opening would be bigger once we came back in. We would ask Bella about it but, as she is a dog, she would just look at us innocently. So we started to leave the room then watch from around the doorway. Sure enough, Bella was sliding the glass open with her nose.

We didn't worry, she liked to watch Billy. What harm could it do, right? Wrong. One day Ms Muxx and I went into the kitchen to prepare tea, only to return into the lounge not knowing where the dog was...until she decided it was time to get out of the vivarium. Yes, she had opened it just enough to squeeze herself into, have a nibble on Billy's lettuce and lie down with him. He didn't seem to mind as they have become best friends.

Who knew a dog could befriend a reptile.

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