Variety staffer Abigail Holloway’s pet tortoise is shown in her backyard eating a tomato on Aug. 29. Holloway has always had to think about what her future will be like to accommodate for a pet tortoise, an animal who can live an average of 80 to 100 years in captivity. “Whether I have children or not I’ll still need to make sure this tortoise will live a good life when I’m gone,” Holloway wrote. Photo by Abigail Holloway
Variety staffer Abigail Holloway discusses how owning a tortoise as a pet impacts her life.
In December of 2009, following the death of my father, my family received a tortoise as a gift. I don’t remember any of this, but from what I was told, he was so small he could fit in the palm of my one-year-old hand.
We named the tortoise Toby.
When you’re so young and an important figure in your life dies, you don’t remember what happened. So for the first few years of my life, Toby was nothing more than a cool pet. But as I got older, Toby became the embodiment of my dad.
Did you know that the average human lifespan is shorter than that of an African Spurred Tortoise in captivity?
For my dad, it was even shorter.
This is why Tobys life is so important. Through him, my dad live longer that the average person, through him my dad will get the years he missed.
Everyone has at least one thing they plan on taking with them when they move into their own house. Mine is Toby.
Growing up, I had a fear of moving out of the house, cause if I moved out of the place where my dad was raised, or away from the people he cared about, I would be losing him.
Toby solved that problem. Toby gave me the courage to dream of my life when I grew up.
When those dreams become a reality, Toby will be there with me letting my dad live on through him.
For me, Toby symbolizes the future, he symbolizes growth. I won’t have my dad in my future, but I will have Toby, so I plan my future around him.
Toby isn’t like a child, he will never need a college fund or help planning his future, but he will need someone to take care of him.
That person is me.
