Big Tom

This past weekend the Wrangler and I went to an open house in an equestrian community here in the OC. The house itself was nothing special. I was making a beeline for the car but stopped when I saw the Wrangler squatting down and talking to something in the side yard. I peeked around the corner and was met by a friendly tortoise. The name "Big Tom" and a phone number were written on his shell. (Apparently, Big Tom has a tendency to wander.) Big Tom crawled swiftly over to me to say hello. "How cool is that?" I asked the Wrangler rhetorically. I already was thinking about how pleasant it would be to have a Big Tom of my own lazily sunning himself on our back patio. The Wrangler and I chatted with Big Tom for a few minutes and then politely excused ourselves. As we checked out the rest of the yard, we noticed a raised garden bed that held not produce but tortoises of different shapes and sizes. The sellers had a little tortoise farm! Thankfully there were only four tortoises, i.e., not a gross number of reptiles. Just enough to be interesting.