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June 30, 2003 Hi Everybody – I’m Rocky Rockford, an endangered tortoise species who now belongs to Useless Knowledge writer, Bobbie O. I was passed on to her when my original owner moved last summer. Her son adopted me several years ago from the Arizona Department of Fish and Game. They say I’m about 14 years of age, now. I know I’m a male. But, humans say they know I’m a male because the underside of my shell is concave. We live in Yuma, Arizona. Although the lower part of the Sonoran Desert, is a little out of my territory as I like to chomp on cactus plants that don’t grow here. We just have scrub desert mostly creosote bush and a few mesquite trees. I can manage to survive in town, though, on lawn grass and weeds, and my keeper, Bobbie, feeds me very well. I think she likes me. She saw me eating grass, yesterday, and a few minutes later she brought me out a plate full of all kinds of goodies: A large portion of cut grapes and cherries; a handful of one of my favorites, bean sprouts - (my former owner must have told her I love them), chopped broccoli and two large collard leaves. She sat and watched as I ate. Heard her tell her friend, who was visiting, that she was sorry there won’t be any more any more Romaine lettuce for a while as the season is over this year, in Yuma. The price of lettuce has gone from 89 cents to a $1.29 a bunch. That’s a big increase for my food budget. Heck, I like collard greens just as well. Think they are more nourishing, anyway. When I finished my meal. I ambled back to the new burrow I’m digging. It is in the corner of the yard behind the tin shed and doesn’t get any water splashed on me or my home from the sprinkler system like my other burrow did. That can be a pain in my short, wrinkled neck, as I can go a year without water and get all the liquid nourishment I need from the food I eat. Do you know that under the proper environment, I can live to be 100 years old. The ground is all sand, here, as Yuma is only 70 feet above sea level, It is river bottom soil from the Colorado and is a cinch to dig out. The stuff around Phoenix isn’t too bad, either because Phoenix is only about 1,000 feet above sea level and all kinds of cactus grow around there. I’ll bet this is the kind of terrain where I was hatched. Did you know that my real mother dug a hole in the desert, laid her eggs – me and my siblings – covered us up and left us for the sun to incubate us. She never came back to check up on us so when we hatched, either, so we were left to the mercy of all the desert predators – birds like the raven, roadrunners and those mangy coyotes, not to mention all the human beings who ran over us with their noisy ATVs. No wonder so few of us survive. That’s why we are on the endangered species list. Anyway, the soil in the Tucson area is the real pits in the high desert, 2,500 feet range, it’s called “caliche” - filled with all kinds of rocks, little ones and big ones. We have a hard time digging a burrow, but we can live up here. No wonder the folks in Tucson stick to desert vegetation for their landscaping. It is too hard to grow anything else and water is so scarce, there, too. Well, it is getting hot out here in the sun. Time to quit digging for a while. I’m going down in my burrow and take a little afternoon siesta. More later – Rocky. ------------ About the author: Bobbie Hart O’Neill is a retired print media journalist, CSU-Sacramento, ’74, with 40 years experience in the field. She has worked as a reporter, feature writer, columnist, public relations writer, magazine/newsletter editor and publisher. She is currently a freelance writer residing in Yuma, Arizona and has published a children’s book, written three screenplays and a novel. In addition, she is interested in civic affairs, politics, current events, ethnology and animals. Email Bobbie: bobbieo@digitaldune.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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