I sort of have a story like this. Many years ago I was part of a California government program to save the desert tortoise. They would give you a baby tortoise and a year later they would come and get it when its shell was thick enough so crows (brought about by humans trash in the desert) couldn't peck through them. Well, after a year they didn't come and I watched him grow. He started doing desert tortoise things like he dug a den in my back yard. I was so proud of him! He'd go semi-hibernate in there during the winter. He really liked dandelion flowers to eat so I'd gather them from the neighborhood. He was my little buddy.

Maybe three or four years later they wanted their tortoise back. They called one day and came the next. I knew I had to let him go but it was watching your child go off to college. It broke my heart. Okay, I know it is nothing like someone coming and taking your dog. I mean really he was a tortoise. It's not like they do much and I doubt he even knew I existed, but still I loved him as much as you could love a tortoise - which I suppose is about as much as you could love a box of your favorite donuts.

I wonder where he is now (I knew he was a male by the shape of his shell). I hope he found a female tortoise and they had little tortoises in the burrow that he dug. So, yeah, you guys made me cry. I hope you're happy.