Prayers Up To Humpty The Turtle After He Had Surgery To Replace His Shell After A Fall

SAN DIEGO — A 90-pound African spurred tortoise nicknamed “Humpty” is recovering following a surgery to fix his shell, which was severely cracked in several places when he fell off a in Fallbrook, county officials said. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again after his nursey rhyme fall, but Humpty the tortoise is expected to make a full recovery thanks to a local veterinarian specializing in reptile health. Humpty, estimated to be about 35 to 40 years old, was discovered injured with his severely damaged shell on Sunday after a dog apparently chased him off a 10-foot retaining wall, County Animal Services Director Dan DeSousa said. “He’s a 90-pound tortoise, not a cat, so he didn’t land on his feet,” DeSousa said. “He instead landed on his back, on his shell.”  County Animal Services is caring for Humpty, and on Tuesday took him to a reptile specialist veterinarian for surgery. 

Ts and Ps. I guess I’m on the turtle beat now? Happy to do it. Yesterday I blogged about a turtle getting spray painted red and today I’m blogging about Humpty the turtle who had to have his shell repaired. Prayers up to Humpty. Prayers all the way. What a traumatic experience that must’ve been for Humpty. Think about it. He didn’t know he was gonna be rescued and fixed up. Humpty has no concept of humans. After he fell and busted his shell, he had to figure he was dead. That he was just gonna lay there and starve to death. This is the problem with being a turtle. Your shell keeps you alive. It protects you from predators and anybody who wants to fuck with your soft body. But it also can be the cause of your death. Break it and it’s usually curtains. Live by the shell, die by the shell so to speak.

I will say, and far be it from me to critique the quality of surgery done on a turtle shell, but it really looks like they just poured Elmers glue on Humpty’s back and put a few screws in him and sent him on his way. I suppose thats the only way to fix a turtle’s shell but it’s not exactly open heart surgery. Here’s to hoping Humpty the turtle has a non-turtle like recovery.