egg sitting

For some reason JS feels that this story needs telling.

My guy, SE, is a man of many pets. Among them are two endangered tortoises: a male named Lewis and a female named Sinclair. His clothes cover the floor of his loft and his closet has been converted into a tortoise home covered in grass cuttings and heated by lamps.

He has had them for about 10 years and has raised them from when they were tiny. Ever since he got them, he has been waiting to breed them. He's all about the being fruitful and multiplying.

10 years is about how long it takes for them to reach maturity.

Of late while in bed we would hear bumping and clacking - strange scuffling noises from the closet. And upon sliding back the door we would find Lewis humping a very unreceptive Sinclair. She sat in her shell and ignored him as he propped himself up on her and did his thing. I could not imagine how penetration would occur. SE had to diagram out the geometry for me. Apparently when receptive, she would move her tail and raise her legs enabling contact.
*naughty*

I got used to the idea that she just wasn't that into him.
*insert comment about the fickleness of tortoise females*
*and the need for the sweet sounds of Marvin Gaye*
*and comments about why we were in bed listening to tortoise love*

There was one night where SE was pretty sure that he had caught them in the act. It was hard to say, though considering that they were in the corner.
*and comment about voyeurism*

Still there was no reason to assume that anything would come of it. They are so young. These things can take time. Despite what your health teacher will say, it doesn't always happen on the first try.

But.

A few days ago SE looked in the closet saw an EGG! Apparently with the proper persistance and wooing Sinclair had seen fit to put out.

Off we went to get an incubator and put little Egg in a temperature controlled environment. This incubator is a big styrofoam box with a few plastic windows and a very imprecise thermal regulator. Set the temperature to 84-88 degrees and wait. Well, more like set the "temperature" and watch the readings on three thermometers fluctuate between 80 and 92 degrees. (none of them giving the same reading)

SE, elated about the new arrival, checked the incubator every few hours to see if the egg was okay. He was leaving for the holiday and started planning to take his animals with him. Including the Egg.

SE started to wonder if there was a second egg. Tortoises commonly lay clutches of them. He weighed Sinclair and found that she had not lost all of her egg weight. Perhaps there was a second egg. He took her to the vet. X-rays showed that indeed there was a second egg. The vet gave him a dose of oxytocin to give her to induce labor and we spent his last night in town spying on poor Sinclair as she paced back and forth around the closet, moving more than I had seen her do in the previous month and a half of knowing her.

Then some time into the pacing SE called me up to the loft to witness the laying. She had already started by the time I got there. I didn't want to disturb her but now I kind of wish that I had been able to see her face. What I saw was the back end emergence of a really big white egg. push-push-pause, push-push-pause, again and again until finally it was out. And she walked away. She came back to bury it but Scott had other plans for second little Egg. Into the incubator with it's sibling.

So the next morning SE was all set to take Sinclair, Lewis, two eggs in incubator and his cat on the long drive home. (I have killed my share of fish and plants when friends leave town. I am not a person to be trusted with delicate precious creatures.) I helped him load up, kissed him good bye, and thought that was that.

Until I stopped by his place to pick some things up. And there on the kitchen was the incubator and the clutch (little Egg and second little Egg looking a bit peaked). In a panic I called him. He thought that the vibration of his car might adversely affect their development, kill them even, and thought it best to leave them.

And now I am egg sitting. I come over a few times a day and visit them. I bought a fourth thermometer to put in the incubator and the general consensus is that one of them is way off and some kind of an average must be taken of the temperature readings of the rest. Despite my best efforts the temperature fluctates between 87.3 and 90.5 degrees. According to the websites I've looked at gender is determined by the temperature of incubation. Which makes me wonder what if they will come out with gender identity issues.

I hover and worry. I read and wonder what kinds of songs one sings to eggs that incubate. After the first couple of weeks the egg calcifies and they are a little less vulnerable. Maybe I will knit them each a little cozy to wear. Or maybe I should write them endangered baby tortoise incubation lullabies.

There is a chance that the eggs are not fertilized. This can only be determined a couple of weeks from now. If they are not I will chase SE down the street giggling hysterically.

As it is when I told JS about all this she started giggling hysterically.