r/aww • u/abhitchc • 5d ago

I fed this female box tortoise some raspberries at the beginning of the summer. Now, she follows me all over the garden, and visits me almost daily looking for handouts.

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u/abhitchc 5d ago

https://preview.redd.it/yh49716inr8d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a432a233298f12c64bf9702eef9c608f52a3a2e

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u/TheAJGman 5d ago edited 5d ago

You might have just made a long lived friend.

My grandfather had a turtle that came back every year for 20 odd years after he fed him once. He'd show up one day during peak strawberry season, patiently wait at the fence gate for his quart of berries, gorge himself until he couldn't move, lay in the sun for a few hours, and then venture back into the woods for the rest of the year. Knew it was the same turtle each year because it had a chipped shell from a run in with someone's lawnmower.

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u/Proglamer 5d ago

Unexpectedly great memory AND keen sense of time!

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u/TheAJGman 5d ago

I always wondered if he could smell them or if he'd check in at night. He would always be there when the strawberry patch was at its peak, didn't matter if it was May or July.

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u/AnotherReddit415 5d ago

“Time to go pick em, tortoise says they’re ripe”

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u/TheAJGman 5d ago

Pretty much. There would be plenty of ripe berries before and after he showed, but I swear they always tasted best the week before and after his visit.

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u/AnotherReddit415 5d ago

They’re a lot smarter than we think. My Snapper fattens his fish for a bit and will wait to eat em. Recognizes me and all that too🤣😭🫶

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u/myasterism 5d ago

So many animals are much, much more than we humans are willing to give them credit for.

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u/DasKobra 5d ago

I'm just hopeful that within our lifetime we'll get a good means of effective direct translation/ communication with them. I'm sure most animals have amazing, sweet and pure personalities that we can't always understand but I choose to believe that they all have something to tell us.

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u/MudWallHoller 5d ago

Otters, chimps, and dolphins enter the chat.

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u/myasterism 5d ago

…and whales and corvids

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u/SoCuteShibe 5d ago

I think they were listing animals that are tough to call sweet and pure, lol

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u/DrKittyLovah 4d ago

I bet you’d like to see the Pets with Buttons sub. It’s people who have taught their pets (mostly dogs) how to communicate with word buttons.

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u/maaalicelaaamb 5d ago

They’re other earthlings! not lesser nor simpler, endowed with senses beyond our understanding

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u/RememberCitadel 5d ago

Well, not me. I assume they all understand everything I say to them. I enjoy holding one way conversations with any one I meet.

One of my cats meows back to anything said to her. Although she prefers talking to my wife more than me.

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u/myasterism 4d ago

Ya know… a lot of critters probably understand more than we think they do

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u/RememberCitadel 4d ago

My cats all understand all of the 700 nicknames my wife gives them and will specifically show up when they are called, but only the one with the associated name.

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u/Jibtech 5d ago

What do you mean 'fattens his fish'? Is it pet snapper or a wild snapper that lives in a pond around your home? Snappers are scary as fawk, they're like a black mass moving under the water.

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u/SinfulThings 4d ago

If we lived in an anime, that would be some sort of forest spirit. I like to think there is still some magic in the world, where we least expect it. Lovely story.

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u/McNemo 5d ago

Great method tbh, what if he started showing up earlier and earlier though?

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u/RadicalLynx 5d ago

"hm, that bush-food smells good now, but hasn't started dropping off the branches so I can eat it from the ground. Time to visit the human!"

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u/tripl35oul 5d ago

"It's nesting season, buddy! You excited?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go eat some strawberries"

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u/VicH95 5d ago

Turtle waddling over to OP's grandfather,
"Yo, I hear you got that good shit. I smell those sumbitches from my hole in the mud."
OP's grandfather,
"I guess it's about that time of the year. It's time to offer my finest berries up to be judged."

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u/currymonsterCA 5d ago

Umm...okay. Is that like an euphemism or are you really going to eat some strawberries? ;)

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u/ranged_ 5d ago

You can 100% smell good strawberries! If you're at the store and can't smell them when you pick them up, they usually aren't worth it and are the gassed-to-ripe kind.

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u/whoaminow17 5d ago

i eat so many strawberries when they're in season. that scent is just heavenly.

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u/BytchYouThought 4d ago

"IRS sent me. Taxes are due." Yes m, yes we accept strawberry payments."

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u/CrystallineCrypts 5d ago

Look man.. I live in Massachusetts. There is an unspoken countdown until clam season. Don't need a calendar. Don't need no stinkin clock. You just wake up one day and you know, like a scent on the breeze... north shore... north shore... fisherman's platter... lobster roll...

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u/MAK3AWiiSH 4d ago

I know you’re probably being factitious, but this is every native Floridian and the rain. You can’t just smell it.

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u/EdwardFoxhole 5d ago

Unexpectedly great memory AND keen sense of time!

gotta recharge after your yearly shit

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u/Faiakishi 5d ago

Free food does that to a turtle.

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u/Boo_and_Minsc_ 4d ago

hell sea turtles always find the beach where they were born. its wild

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u/Dumptruck_Johnson 5d ago

Turtles are just elephants but with eggs