Shirley is my girly. I never wanted to be put in charge of the family tortoise's welfare, but when I was--I took the job seriously. Shirley has been with the family for about 40 years. Since she has come to be in my care, she has become my priority. Shirley was, in fact, the reason I delayed my move until the late fall/early winter. I thought it best to make the move while she was in hibernation so it wouldn't upset her too much. I had hoped she'd just go to sleep and wake up months later in her new home. Boy, was I wrong...
I had a space for Shirley and her box in my jam-packed car right behind the front seats. I thought she was secure, but the closer I got to San Leandro (the first stop on the trip up), Erich (who was with me) noticed that her box had slide forward a little and was sitting at an angle. Poor Shirley. Who knows how long she'd been like that? Erich corrected her box and tried to hold it up, but it did pitch forward again a few more times.
Once at Erich's house, we carefully brought Shirley inside in her box and set her on Erich's dining room floor.
The morning of our departure for the next leg of our journey, we made sure the space Shirley's box would be resting on was more secure so she couldn't tip forward again. I picked up her box from the dining room floor and Erich noticed some sort of black stain on the wooden floor where she had been sleeping. It was tortoise shaped, like the Shroud of Turin, if you know what I mean. Using a sponge, I couldn't get it to come up. It felt like it was burned into the floor. Erich thinks that she was so traumatized by the move that her body was literally excreting her fear. I've never seen anything like it.
We drove all day the 5th and all day the 6th. They were long days without incident (thank goodness), but still, there was plenty of stopping, accelerating, and turning. On the last day, there was a ferry crossing on very choppy water. I'm sure Shirley was freaked out the whole time.
When we reached the house I will now be living in, I put her carefully in the closet in my room so I can check on her periodically.
Several weeks before our arrival, the island had experienced a power failure. My brother had gotten my mom some battery-powered LED Christmas lights to hang throughout her house to provide some sort of light at night during the blackout. She had several boxes of the lights here waiting for me as well.
Because my stuff had not arrived yet and there was little I could do in the meantime, Erich and I set about hanging the lights in various spots around the house for the just-in-case power outage scenario. Little did we know that a week later a massive storm would roll in.
The news people were calling it a Pineapple Express, when a warm Pacific system meets up with one from the polar regions. And it was a dilly! Between Canada (Victoria) to the north and Washington to the south, there is a very long corridor of open ocean. The wind just zooms down that stretch until it hits land...which is right at Coupeville (circled in red below). Holy cow!
The rains and wind were super fierce. The video I took doesn't do the storm justice. The rain pelted the house. The wind blew so hard, you could feel the house shake. The sound was just sort of booming.
Water was puddling under the French doors of the dining room, blown in by the wind. It was crazy since the deck they open up to is kind of on the 2nd floor essentially.
Eventually it looked like the storm was passing. Blue sky was visible in the background. However, the winds kept up. They had just blown the rain away.
From the upper floor of the house, you could see whitecaps on the cove.
As I watched, I noticed the wharf itself. I zoomed in. I'd never seen the water so high before. The waves were splashing over the pier walk way. A section of the roof was starting to lift. Just crazy!
The power had gone out around 1 pm. It was an amazing bit of luck that we had put up the "emergency" Christmas lights. We hadn't expected to use them that soon.
They didn't offer a lot of light, but it was better than nothing.
There was a lot of damage and flooding on the mainland. The island also had damage. My mom had an apple tree blow over onto a shed on a property she owns.
We had just been there a day or two earlier and saw a deer eating some of the fallen apples. I know the deer can find other things to eat, but I was bummed that one of their food sources would now have to be taken out.
My bigger concern though was Shirley. The night of the storm it was crazy cold in the house. The wind blew so hard, it kept blowing open a window in my bedroom. There was nothing you could do to prop it closed or block it. That made the inside temperature the same as the outside. Tortoises are not supposed to be below 50 degrees, 45 degrees at the very lowest. That night it was 45 degrees even. The next night however, was due to drop down to 34 degrees. I was worried Shirley would get too cold and die. I was told by several to put blankets around her box. That would do no good as reptiles cannot generate their own heat. She would hopefully be okay that night, but the next day I'd have to act...
Oak Harbor, the "big" town on the island had power and was just 10 miles away, The next morning, I drove there. I visited a pet store and got Shirley a ceramic heat thing that I can hang above her box---when there is power.
I don't remember why I went home after that. Something about Mom maybe having a generator, perhaps? I don't recall. She couldn't find it (it was new, never used), so back to Oak Harbor I went...and for whatever reason, there was a huge traffic jam. UGH!
Home Depot and the Tractor Supply store were out of generators--of course! Trying to be a good tortoise daddy, I decided I needed to go all of the way to the mainland to Burlington. I hoped I'd have better luck there.
Amazingly, there was one generator left...but it was $1,099.99. Yikes! I was pondering the purchase when Mom called. She's purchased a Presto log and was going to take it over to the house, light a fire in the upstairs fire place and keep Shirley warm the old fashioned way.
Mom called back, She said she had a fire going. She had taken Shirley from her box and placed her on a towel in front of the fire, Later, she brought her box up and put her in that so she could go back to sleep.
To me that sounded like a better (i.e. cheaper) solution--a fire to keep her warm. Duh! I left the generator and got two big boxes of Duraflame logs.
I went to Costco and was picking up a few things there when Erich called. He'd been out walking. He said as he approached the house, he heard these alarms going off. When he walked in, he walked into a house full of smoke. Mom was sitting there in a chair, alarms screaming all around her, the fire place was smoking and the windows open, totally defeating the purpose of keeping Shirley warm. The power came on briefly (it went out again a few minutes later) and Mom left.
Erich then said he pulled down all of the alarms to quiet them and pulled Shirley (in her box) out of the room and into the hallway to get her out of the smoky mess.
Mom's version was a little different. She said she hadn't pushed the long back far enough, but yes, the flue was open. She didn't think the smoke was all that bad.
I didn't see any of this. I'm sure what really happened was somewhere between their two perspectives. I was still at Costco when I heard about all of this, but told Erich I would head right back---which took an hour. The day was already coming to an end as I drove up.
The house reeked of smoke --especially upstairs. There were smoke stains on the tile around the fire place and on the walls above them. Now that the power was mercifully back on, we returned Shirley and her box to her place in my closet.
I hung the heat thing (there's no light, just heat) over her box. She just needs to stay warm--not bake.
The next day, I went to Clinton at the southern end of the island. There is a pet store there I had tried to reach the day before, but I got no answer. I'm guessing it was closed due to the power outage.
The reason I wanted to go there is because the owner has a pet tortoise. Her tortoise is much bigger (and younger) than Shirley---and he has the run of the whole store. I needed to know how I could help Shirley survive the winters here. I picked up a few tips and a light that emits UV rays (which apparently she will need as the sun is not strong enough here for her to survive naturally). I'll also be getting her a warming pad for when she does wake up and is more mobile.
Finally, instead of a $1,000+ generator, I got two of these rechargeable power supplies for about $100 each. I keep them ready just in case of another power outage. They are strictly dedicated for Shirley's heat source.
But the poor old girl has been through so much--the long trip up, the cold, the smoke, etc. I hope she is going to be okay. We will see.
The next day, I was washing dishes and a package came with some dry ice in it. I dropped it in the dishwater. This happened. As a joke, I filmed it and sent it to Mom, telling her we had a new problem. I thought it would be an amusing way to brush off the stress from the previous day.
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