So, did you make your guess already? The answer is..............the left tortoise with the extended top shell that touches the ground is the male tortoise while the female is on his right. Nice way of learning the tiny little details about this exotic animal species. And again I am sorry that I could not post any pictures of Merlin's tail area. But, I might browse some of the old younger-day pictures of him and put them up here.

Merlin has been with me since he was as tiny as a Malaysian 50cent coin. I remember buying him at a pet shop in Giant, Senawang. There were many many duplicates of him, but I chose the quiet little sleepy one that sat at a corner of its container. I remember once after I had transferred him into a container that I made from Moms old microwavable plastic into Merlin's crib, I came home to check on him and he did not move an inch, even as I screamed his name a few times.

He was so tiny, there was no sign that he was breathing. A sleeping kitten, wound make breathing noises, but a baby tortoise did not make any sounds at all. All the sounds that you could hear would be coming from me hyperventilating, screaming and finally tossing him this and that way.

And I broke the rule: If in doubt about absolutely anything at all, turn on your computer and GOOGLE about what it is that is bothering your crazy brains. I was in a panic, I did what a real panic crazy woman would do when her baby tortoise did not show sign that he would get up to the sound of his crazy human so-called mother, which was this:


I am ashamed to say that I picked the poor little darling up and roll him down in the water part of his crib and screamed his name a few times, with an acceptance that maybe he really was no longer with me.


I was about to cry when finally I saw some tiny little movements, a slow draggy opening of one eye, a slow stretch of one leg hidden under his tiny shell.


HE IS ALIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! bless the heaven! Yes I was so excited and grateful, you would think I had just given birth to my own baby. But what do i know about birth giving, that's just me trying to fill up some gaps and be a wee bit dramatic. Cancel that.


I did google about how to rouse your little baby tortoise though only afterwards, It was said that just by using a finger, a gentle rub on the sole of your baby tortoises' feet, would wake the cute tiny thing up.


So, do not be like me and start to throw a deep-sleeping baby tortoise in a pool of water. If he had words and the ability to use them, he would be cursing, just like you, when somebody splashes some amount of water on you while you're sleeping. Here, We're talking the kind of cursing when you are actually thrown into a pool of water while you are asleep!


Now, Merlin is bigger than my palm and he has long left his baby-crib and the teenage-hide-out. I have placed him in this big pot outside of the house with some water but not too much. I used to have a tortoise back in the days before Merlin that went missing because the tortoise pot was exposed to rain water and it overflooded, taking the tortoise along with it.


Lesson learned. The image below is of Merlin during his years with me in college, yep he studied too while I pursued my degree, and I wonder if he too, like me, misses all those years back in that sauna-like room I had in college. I think its always been too bright for him but again, because he could not complain except by doing the thing he does with his legs, when he gets upset or excited, I cant say.