Billy the spur thigh tortoise is one patient guy. He has finally succeeded in mating with Tammy, a mere babe of 47 who had spurned his advances for 15 years. Come out of your shell and read all about their tale of lasting amour.
According to
news sources, Billy and mate, Tammy, 47, have seven eggs due to hatch in eight to 12 weeks. Peter Crane, their owner from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, found the eggs in his garden last week buried in about 6 inches of soil.
Mr. Crane told the media that Tammy had rejected Billy’s advances many times and was regularly chased around the garden in hopes of amorous rapture, but nothing ever happened… until now.
Billy was born in 1899 and has been cared for by Crane’s family ever since. Peter Crane inherited the tortoise from an 80-year-old relative some 15 years ago. Tammy, who is almost twice the size of Billy at about eight inches long, came to Crane as a gift from his parents when he was just three years old.
In his own words:
“I didn’t realize he had it in him but apparently the older they get the more fertile they become and he's obviously raring to go. He’s a very lively tortoise…He chases Tammy around the garden and they head butt each other as a mating ritual. Tammy even has a dent in the back of her shell where he has given her a nasty bang. She’s been a difficult one to crack but it shows persistence pays off when you’re chasing a woman and I can’t wait for the offspring to be born.”
Mr. Crane has built two little separate wooden huts in his garden, but the pair prefer to spend quality time cuddled up in the same box. Ain’t love grand?
