Walker Texas Ranger

I had mentioned to my friend, Debbie that I hadn't seen Walker, Texas Ranger for a long time. She said that she hadn't seen him much recently either. She thought that maybe he didn't care for the hot weather. She did promise that she would call me if he showed up. Well this afternoon I received a call that Walker was in Debbie's backyard so I hurried over to see him.

Now, if you thought I was heading off to see this tall drink of water you would be mistaken...

Here is Debbie's Walker. He is an 11 year tortoise who is still growing.

He is about 2 1/2 feet long from end to end. He was growing so big that last year he started breaking through the fence and roaming the neighborhood. Luckily he was returned unharmed each time by neighbors who knew who he was and where he lived. The fence was re-enforced and Walker's name, address and phone numbers were written on his shell in case he decided to take another stroll.

If you haven't seen a very large tortoise up close before it is quite amazing. Walker lives in Debbie's backyard. He dug a large hole underground where he sleeps and stays when the weather is hot. There is a large doghouse igloo over the top of the hole. Walker will wander around the backyard and will eat certain plants and the veggies and fruit that is left for him. He also has a big pool that he can walk into. The thing that surprised me the most was how fast he moves. I've seen him run (in his lumbering turtle way) across the backyard lickety split.

After I returned home I decided to look online so I could do a post on turtle inspired decor.

Turtles and tortoises are so interesting but I had a hard time finding much in the way of turtle decor. The few items I found were usually for babies.

And even then they didn't seem too popular.

The accessories all seemed to be more on the cutesy side.

Or valley speaking, mutant pizza eating teenagers on steroids with mad ninja skills. (So realistic!)

The few turtles who do get some press (and movie roles) are sea turtles. They are elegant swimmers and have those cool flipper things.

And of course, baby sea turtles are just so darn cute!

So what about Walker?

Now, he may not have an explosive roundhouse kick or awesome karate chop like this Walker. He may not even have paparazzi hiding in the bushes near his house or be offered a lucrative movie deal.

But I think THIS Walker is pretty amazing none the less. Score one for mother nature!

(photo credits: texas ranger, sugarslam; bath, smartshopbuy; bedding, weedecor; towels, retrobaby; ninjas, theibug; seaturtle, roatan; babies, national geographic)