Ninja the Terrapin Enjoys a Brief Sojourn at Portfolio

Posted Mon, 19 Oct 2009 (3 years ago)

Early last week a not-so-small terrapin was spotted walking down Dean Street in front of Portfolio's Newlands' office by staff member Marylou.

Enquiries in the neighbourhood revealed that this chap was a regular visitor at a neighbour's garden but seemed to belong to no-one.

Concerned that he would come to a sticky end if he kept roaming the streets, we brought him to the shady back garden of our offices which has a small pond / water feature and he seemed happy to chill with us for a while. We all enjoyed visiting him during coffee breaks and seeing him bobbing up to the surface to take in some air before slipping back into the cooler depths of the pond.

However this area doubles up as the staff car park and we really didn't want to run the risk of squishing the little guy when leaving work, so another plan had to be hatched.

Enter Karen and Eric Ahlschlager, a nature-loving couple who live on an organic farm outside Malmesbury. They offered Ninja (as he was named by John in our DTP department) a new home at their lovely dam.

Karen, who was celebrating her birthday on the day, collected Ninja last week Wednesday and sent us these photographs of his release on the farm (above) along with some of his new friends (below)

A happy end to this travelling terrapin's tale :-)

3 Responses to Ninja the Terrapin Enjoys a Brief Sojourn at Portfolio

Hi Joy

Ninja is adjusting well BUT he may be suffering from and identity crisis and thinks he is a tortoise!
He prefers to spend time in the garden than in the ponds. There is a Leopard tortoise and the local Rooipens tortoises for company.
There is abundant food and water in the gardens so he will no doubt be happy.

I loved the little error – Eric's surname is Cherry.
All our pets have a double barreled surname — because I don't want to loose my long and unpronounceable German surname...

Ninja surname is Ahlschläger-Cherry...!

Cheers
Karen

By Karen (3 years ago)

Hi Karen

Great to hear that Ninja is happy, if possibly confused about his identity! Sounds like a corner of paradise - lucky terrapin!

Sorry about the surname mix-up but I will leave it as is so that your comment makes sense to future readers?

Take care!

Joy and all at Portfolio

By Joy (3 years ago)

Hi there guys... well i'm a lover of all animals and this brought a smile to my face knowing that the little critter is happy:)

just wanted to find out though, how to go about if i want a terrapin as a pet. what are the requirments?

I would really love to have one, but i want one that will be small as possible. is there any way of knowing what size they will grow to? or is there a specific species that is naturally tiny?

By Sashlyn (2 years ago)