Thought for the Week

Some may say it would be wise to sleep through the winter and miss the gales, the rain, the sleet and the cold. They may have a point. I am fascinated by hibernation. Our two tortoises had been hibernating for five months and we were sure the warm weather would tempt them to face the world again.

Zak emerged first and stomped over Zoe for several days before she gave up and emerged to join him.

She had only been awake for a day, keeping within the shelter of their house most of the time, when storm Freya struck.

The wind was so strong that it damaged the gate to the tortoise enclosure and we found it swinging open the next morning.

All seemed well and Zak was under his sun lamp while a little bump in the corner indicated Zoe was there, or so we thought.

That afternoon when we went out to see that all was well, our collie Jazz refused to come back into the house and was desperately trying to tell us something about the bushes. We could see nothing and insisted he come in.

However he wouldn’t give up, and with an ‘I told you so’ look about him, emerged from the bushes with Zoe in his mouth.

Jazz knew she shouldn’t be there and if he hadn’t found her, we would have had no idea what had happened to her.

After all this adventure, Zoe has gone back into hibernation.

I never cease to be enchanted by the wonders of the natural world and when I see it all in all its glory, I fail to see how it could possibly have happened by chance.