A home for Cecil

Cecil is our leopard tortoise. We've had him for eight years now. When we got him he was just a wee hatchling and cute as can be. While he's inside he lives in a tortoise table which looks like an old fashioned wooden coffin on legs. During the summer he occasionally goes outside to soak up the sunshine and feast on weeds but he's never had an proper outdoor pen. Until today. I've wanted to build him one for a few years now and finally got to it this weekend. He's a desert tortoise so I wanted to make it as a arid as possible. Desert tortoises that are housed on grass and moist soil tend to develop fugus issues with their shells so we located the pen in an area of the yard where grass isn't growing too well and put down pea gravel over the dirt.

We made the pen 5 foot by 5 foot and constructed it out of old deck wood from the torn out pool (the wood is actually almost gone...finally). I thought it might be a good way to hide the old unsightly pine stump.

Next was the hinged top panels. This allows sun in but keeps predators and Minions out. I just used regular zinc coated wire mesh from the local farm store and pressure treated 2x4's (oh and an awesome Hubby to cut it all for me).

Nearly done! All screwed together with hinged top on.

I told the kids they'd better be good or they'll go in the box. Naturally they wanted in there anyways. Silly youngins.

Time to go get Cecil and introduce him to his new home for the summer.  He looks so small in there. He'll still come back inside at night for safety.

I told Hubby poor Cecil might be lonely in there all by himself. Might be time to get him a friend. Have I mentioned how much I've wanted a Sulcata (another African tortoise)?

Hubby said he's getting pretty good at building animal enclosures. He never knew he was going to work at a zoo when he grew up. I have an awesome husband.