• last month
Grandmum Jackie Leek has struck up a remarkable bond with a giant tortoise which she takes everywhere with her - including down the pub.

Jackie, 58, first bought the African sulcata tortoise she calls Mr Miyagi for company when recovering from cancer 18 months ago.

Since then the pair have become inseparable and she has taken the eight-year-old tortoise on holiday in her caravan and for regular strolls on the beach.

He weighs around three stone (19kg) and is expected to be around 10 stone (63kg) when he gets older.

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00Hi, my name is Jackie and I have a therapy pet tortoise called Mr Miyagi and today I have brought him to the pub.
00:10He comes here because what he does, he walks round the pub and he can walk round in a circle
00:30and he goes round the bar and he comes round and he rearranges all the furniture.
00:39All the people who drink in there love it because he just goes walking off with the chairs.
00:45I do drink in here so if I come in without him everyone's like, where's Mr Miyagi Jackie?
00:52So I have to come sometimes on my own, I can't bring him every time.
00:56But yeah, he loves coming in here and Gareth who owns the place always lets me bring him in, he hasn't got a problem.
01:06I got Mr Miyagi, I got diagnosed with a couple of cancers, couldn't go to work anymore
01:16and then I was getting up all hours of the night or sleeping in the day and my family were amazing
01:25but I felt like I needed something that needed me so I couldn't have a dog or anything
01:33so we just went to the pet shop and I said, oh why don't we get a tortoise?
01:38And when we went we were looking at all these little tortoises and we thought, oh that would be nice, I'll be able to hold it and cuddle it.
01:45Anyway, we ended up getting an African Spurthight.
01:49They were very honest in the pet shop, told us they grow very big, very big and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, be fine, be fine, be fine.
01:58And here we are, eight years on and he's not even halfway there yet and he's huge.
02:05He's disruptive and you think you've been burgled when you come in, it completely trashes my house, breaks stuff.
02:15It costs us a fortune to feed and then there's all these heat lights, all these bulbs.
02:24But he's worth every penny to me, he's the one that's with me when I have them bad days and I'm crying and I don't want to bother everybody else.
02:33He knows there's something wrong with me, he'll sit at my feet, wherever I am he'll come and find me.
02:41If I nip out and I come in, he can be in his house but as soon as he hears my voice, he's out of his little house and he's straight over.
02:51He's like a dog but he's more than a dog.
02:59He gives me so much love and I love it when people stop me and ask me about him.
03:05I can spend all day saying, oh this is what he does, this is what he does.

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