Wait - dogs are useful. With proper motivation, you could train a dog to bring you beer, slippers, and they're affectionate, they'll guard the house (well, at Pongo's age guarding means sleeping in front of the door some someone trips over them...), etc. And they don't tend to cause the same messes that cats cause.

However, if you tried to train your turtle to bring you the beer, it's gonna be a tad bit warm (not to mention that you'll be thirsty) by the time it gets there.

And face it, dogs, unlike cats, aren't looking at you and plotting your demise...

Speaking of pets with shells, how are the hermit crabs doing?

I think two (out of, IIRC, eight) have gone to the Great Tree in the Sky. The rest seem to be doing fine. One seems to have become something of a nudist... he wanders around occasionally without his shell. At first we thought he was on his way out too, but he crawled back in after some minutes and kept going. Done it a few times now. *shrug*

Re: "cats don't cause the same messes"... emphasis being on "same". Tortoises, when properly housed, don't cause ANY, which is the ultimate goal here.

Your nudist is probably looking for a larger shell, Scott...

Their tank is covered in them, all different sizes. Must be a really picky crab.

Ron, your dog craps in the house all the time.

To be fair to Pongo, he's roughly 105 years old, mostly deaf and going blind, and arthrytic, to boot. If I make it that age, I'll be happy if I can still hold it most of the time. And he does manage to control himself most of the time.

However, for the vast majority of his life, he's had no real problem with the crapping in the house. Nor the peeing. He's occasionally eaten a wall, but that's due to him having his cave changed on him without any permission.

And Scott - if you think the turtle will always be properly housed, apparently you've been drinking too much and not listening to Ellen and Amber talk. Soon, my friend, soon Om will be leaving you presents on the floor. Nice, slippery, stinky ones.

Ron, he still shit on my floor, and pees on yours..and poops on yours :)

Again, he's old. Real old. In dog years, he could've fought in WWI, had kids that fought in WWII, Korea, grandkids in Viet Nam, and great grand kids in Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom. Hell, had he had an aggressive set of kids, hell, he could have had children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren. Cut him some slack, eh?

A dog, at this point (with a modicum of training) would give you years and years of poop and pee-free living.

It could be that all the shells that are big enough for the "streaker" have rough edges inside that he doesn't like. Or maybe he's the low crab in the picking order, and the other crabs keep stealing his shell every time he settles in.

Ron, your dog took a shit on my floor when he came in from just using the outside. The way he moves is like a giant tortoise.:)

Yes, he did. Which was actually pretty amusing. At least to me. However, he didn't always move like a tortoise and crap on your floor (or mine). Until recently, I think he did that roughly 6-7 times in his life. And he would run everywhere, jump around, go hiking with me, etc. So, while he's closer now to what your tortoise would be like, I still submit that I'd rather have a dog than a tortoise.

Oh no, I will be telling Amber all about this. :)