goodbye

i am not sure if everyone has heard or not but i lost my beloved norbert. norbert is an african spur-thigh tortoise that i had for a while and i let him out the other day to get some sun and graze on the grass in the court yard out in front of our place. i went down to the beach for like forty-five minutes and when i came back i could not find him anywhere. i would do this all the time and just check on him like every half hour, but this time he was just gone. i thought at first that he would show up or that someone would find him and know that he was ours and return him. now about a week later i am starting to really realize that norbert might not be around any more. to be completely honest, i was suprised at how sad i was about my lost pet. it is the hardest at night when i think that he might be out in the cold with no one to bring him under a cozy warm lamp. i really don't know why this was so hard for me. i was really out of sorts for a few days. he was just such a cool turtle and i loved just watching and taking care of him. i remember the first time i picked him up and looked at him eye to eye. he was the coolest and i wanted to grow old with him and hand him down to my kids or something. but now he is gone. so now i am trying to allow myself to realize the obvious, i need to say goodbye to norbert. this sucks.