Goodbye Mortis
As many of you know, my pet Russian Tortoise, Mortis, lives in a tank in my home office. He's been relatively "low key" for a couple of weeks. I needed to go to Boulder for work. Since Jen works in the early morning, my parents graciously offered to let her and the dog and AJ stay at their house. Jen would have to stop back at the house occasionally and we decided that Mortis should be fine just being fed every couple of days.
I returned home on Friday to a flurry of conference calls. I fed Mortis but noticed he ate very little if any food. Saturday morning came and I decided to give him his weekly bath. When I place him in the tub he hardly moved, which was very odd. All he did was poke his head up to get some air and dip it down again. I freaked.
I immediately pulled him out of the bathtub and started prodding and poking him. He would move a little bit, but he was nowhere near normal. I called the vet and I finally got hooked up with Animal Emergency Clinic in St. Paul near University and Marion. I put him in a shoe box and high tailed it. After hours of waiting (they were really backed up) I got the grim news. Mortis had pneumonia.
Pneumonia is fairly common in reptiles. The vet told me that it's frequently fatal. She wrote up an estimate for 36 hours of observed care, but told me he had a 50/50 chance at best. The estimate was over $800.
As much as I cared about him, I couldn't bring myself so spend that kind of money given the odds. The good people at Animal Emergency Clinic gave him some antibiotics sent me home with some heat packs and instructions for care.
Jen and I spent the evening together keeping him warm in a shoe box and holding him on our lap. Toward midnight it seemed like he was gaining strength and might take a turn for the better. I placed him on our bathroom where it stays warm and I placed a hot water bottle under his shoebox.
You can imagine how poorly I slept. After a nigh of tossing and turning I checked on him around 6:00 AM. I did some nudging and he opened his eye up at me as if to ask "What are you doing?" I promptly told Jen that he had made it through the night and I logged on to my laptop to catch up on some work that fell off my plate during my trip.
Mortis's tank light in my office came on about an hour and a half later. I took that as my queue to grab the little guy headed upstairs. I was hoping that I might get him to eat something. When I picked him up it was immediately evident that he had expired. His eyes were still open. I'd like to think that I was the last thing he saw before passing away.
I skipped church and took my only other pet for a walk at the Tamarack Nature Center. I'm quite overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. The attention that Mortis received dropped significantly after we purchased Charlie and even more after AJ was born. I don't think he was out in the yard at my house here in White Bear Lake. You can imagine how horrible I feel for not getting him checked when I saw his energy level drop off and for not insisting that Jen take him with to Mom's this past week.
Mortis went to meet his maker on his birthday. I bought him on March 7, 1995 from Pets Plus on Robert Street in West St. Paul with my tax return. Since his date of birth was not known, I always considered it to be tax day. I suppose there's a bit of irony in the fact that death and taxes are the only certainties we have.
He cost me a grant total of $159.99. I've since seen Russian Tortoises at big box pet stores for $65 or less, but I never felt jipped. He was energetic for a tortoise, quite inquisitive, hungry, and a bit of a grump. You could often count on him to hiss at you when disturbed. One time while I was still living at Mom and Dad's he tried to eat my toe while I was playing on the computer. Man did that hurt. When given reign of the house, he would often wander off when nobody was looking and fall asleep in the strangest places. There were times that it took over an hour to find him.
All I know is that Mortis was a far better pet to me than I was an owner to him. He brought joy into my life by simply letting me observe him. I'll miss watching him eat and take a bath most of all. There was many an evening that I would play my banjo in my office while he bonked along against the side of his tank. He was a great audience. I'm taking the banjo out to my back yard to play him a requiem of sorts. I'll be dropping his body off at the Golden Valley Humane Society tomorrow night to be cremated.
Rest in peace Mortis. I loved you.
I returned home on Friday to a flurry of conference calls. I fed Mortis but noticed he ate very little if any food. Saturday morning came and I decided to give him his weekly bath. When I place him in the tub he hardly moved, which was very odd. All he did was poke his head up to get some air and dip it down again. I freaked.
I immediately pulled him out of the bathtub and started prodding and poking him. He would move a little bit, but he was nowhere near normal. I called the vet and I finally got hooked up with Animal Emergency Clinic in St. Paul near University and Marion. I put him in a shoe box and high tailed it. After hours of waiting (they were really backed up) I got the grim news. Mortis had pneumonia.
Pneumonia is fairly common in reptiles. The vet told me that it's frequently fatal. She wrote up an estimate for 36 hours of observed care, but told me he had a 50/50 chance at best. The estimate was over $800.
As much as I cared about him, I couldn't bring myself so spend that kind of money given the odds. The good people at Animal Emergency Clinic gave him some antibiotics sent me home with some heat packs and instructions for care.
Jen and I spent the evening together keeping him warm in a shoe box and holding him on our lap. Toward midnight it seemed like he was gaining strength and might take a turn for the better. I placed him on our bathroom where it stays warm and I placed a hot water bottle under his shoebox.
You can imagine how poorly I slept. After a nigh of tossing and turning I checked on him around 6:00 AM. I did some nudging and he opened his eye up at me as if to ask "What are you doing?" I promptly told Jen that he had made it through the night and I logged on to my laptop to catch up on some work that fell off my plate during my trip.
Mortis's tank light in my office came on about an hour and a half later. I took that as my queue to grab the little guy headed upstairs. I was hoping that I might get him to eat something. When I picked him up it was immediately evident that he had expired. His eyes were still open. I'd like to think that I was the last thing he saw before passing away.
I skipped church and took my only other pet for a walk at the Tamarack Nature Center. I'm quite overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. The attention that Mortis received dropped significantly after we purchased Charlie and even more after AJ was born. I don't think he was out in the yard at my house here in White Bear Lake. You can imagine how horrible I feel for not getting him checked when I saw his energy level drop off and for not insisting that Jen take him with to Mom's this past week.
Mortis went to meet his maker on his birthday. I bought him on March 7, 1995 from Pets Plus on Robert Street in West St. Paul with my tax return. Since his date of birth was not known, I always considered it to be tax day. I suppose there's a bit of irony in the fact that death and taxes are the only certainties we have.
He cost me a grant total of $159.99. I've since seen Russian Tortoises at big box pet stores for $65 or less, but I never felt jipped. He was energetic for a tortoise, quite inquisitive, hungry, and a bit of a grump. You could often count on him to hiss at you when disturbed. One time while I was still living at Mom and Dad's he tried to eat my toe while I was playing on the computer. Man did that hurt. When given reign of the house, he would often wander off when nobody was looking and fall asleep in the strangest places. There were times that it took over an hour to find him.
All I know is that Mortis was a far better pet to me than I was an owner to him. He brought joy into my life by simply letting me observe him. I'll miss watching him eat and take a bath most of all. There was many an evening that I would play my banjo in my office while he bonked along against the side of his tank. He was a great audience. I'm taking the banjo out to my back yard to play him a requiem of sorts. I'll be dropping his body off at the Golden Valley Humane Society tomorrow night to be cremated.
Rest in peace Mortis. I loved you.
posted by White Bear Guy at
3:38 PM
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