Walking to a different beat

When one owes a sulcata, a large sulcata, there just comes a day when picking it up is the last thing one wants to do. Weight become too much to pick up the sulcata without a second pair of hands, ingenious thought-up methods (like planks or ramps or lift systems) or just plain waiting for the sulcata to get where you want it. And then the realization comes that the sulcata walks to the beat of a different drummer....a much slower one.

Yes, when one calls Fido the dog into the house because it is about to down pour like Noah's flood one can usually count on the dog to make it into the house within 30 seconds or less...even if the dog is on the other end of a big yard. But when you call the sulcata to come into the house, it is just going to take ten to fifteen minutes because that is just how fast they walk. And I kid you not. I've timed Frankie.

I've had thunderstorm warnings hit our area and I can put on a rain slick, run outside to the box turtle pen, hunt down three box turtles some which may be fully to partially buried, and get them back into the house in five minutes flat. I promise I have done it.

With Frankie, I can get him headed toward the house, willingly (a unwilling sulcata is thrice the trouble), and had enough time to clean up the yard, get all the box turtles into the house, take inside garbage to the outside garbage can, take the outside large garbage can into the garage, secure all patio furniture and Frankie will still not be in the house. I know because I have done this.

So, I have a red wagon in the yard (still means I have to pick Frankie up), a skate board with a pull string, and a garden cart (must pick up Frankie but the cart isn't as noisy as the wagon) as transportation devices when I must move Frankie quickly. Its either that or take a book outside and read while Frankie ambles into the house.

I have seen Frankie walk faster, usually when he is on "the big walk" and having fun. But I can't remember anyone warning me that I would be standing dead still waiting on a sulcata to get somewhere on his own four feet when I want him to hurry and get his butt inside because there is a storm coming, oh, please hurry, please. Forget it. Sacrifice the back. Pick Frankie up.

Don't say someone hasn't warned you 'cause I just did.