By Andree Verhulst
Walking around Old Town, “Beware: Guard Tortoise on Duty” is not the usual front yard sign. To the right side of an otherwise normal, very nice house lives Pooh, a gigantic reptile. He is a 21-year-old spur-thighed sulcata tortoise, more than 2 feet long and weighing more than 100 pounds.
As his wide L-shape arms flail slowly about, he maneuvers, methodically and tanklike. His dark gray head and neck could easily be the size of a small dog.
His owner, Rona Sulimoff, retired, moved to Seal Beach from Huntington Beach in the 1990s. She bought the tortoise for her daughter, now 25, in 2004. Her daughter had attended a prehistoric pet party when she was four-years-old, which was the first time they both had ever seen a tortoise like that.
In a telephone interview on July 20, Sulimoff said, “He is definitely part of the family.”
After the birthday party experience, a friend of Sulimoff’s in Arizona also had a spur-thighed sulcata so she started looking at them. Looking back, she remembered a reptile store called Paradise Pets with baby sulcatas and a few big ones the size of Pooh.
When she bought Pooh, she did not know they could live to be 100 years old. “I didn’t really think about it.” Sulimoff said. “They are so cute when they are little. Later on, I started reading about it more and more, and … they can be really destructive.”
Pooh has his own wooden house and picket fence. He can be seen eating kale, heads of romaine, watermelon, carrots, timothy hay and real grass from his very own front yard.
When Sulimoff’s daughter was in high school, her boyfriend painted on [Pooh] with nontoxic paint to ask her to a formal dance. “That was really cute. Back then you had to come up with clever ways to ask someone to prom so I think he just wrote prom on it,” Sulimoff said. “He brought the tortoise up to the front door and she saw it.”
Autism Partnership, a school for autistic children nearby, integrates Pooh in daily life. “A lot of those kids get to go on a walk or whatever and they come by here,” Sulimoff said. “So, if I catch them out there, I’ll let them pet him or feed him – get closer.”
Two siblings, Maddy Gilles, 7, and Theo Gilles, 9, stopped by to see Pooh in July. While they were there, some elderly neighbors walked by and told the kids that the best time of day for visits is around 10am when the sun is out.
“It wasn’t the best introduction. He was in his dog house. I saw his big body,” Theo said.
“I was excited. When I was calling the turtle, he was looking at us. He was directly looking at us with his eye. He was so big. He looked heavy,” said Maddy. “I wish I could feel it. I wish I could pet the turtle and get closer.”
So far in 21 years, Sulimoff has never had to take Pooh to the veterinarian. One time he did have a crack on his shell. She asked a friend of hers, an exotic pet vet, to come to the house to check on him. He said he probably climbed off a stone or something and fell down, which would be the equivalent of cracking a nail.
Long Beach resident and owner of Good Vibes Mobile Veterinary Service, Dr. Kate Moore said for most pets Pooh’s size, she does house calls, but some owners get a ramp and load them onto a truck.
Moore said spur-thighed sulcata tortoises are not common pets, but she does see them and quite a few California desert tortoises as well.
Spur-thighed sulcata tortoises tend to suffer from upper respiratory infections, skin or shell issues and mobility issues. According to Moore, they are not known to be super aggressive. Shiny fingernails might be seen as food, but they are not known for biting. However, they can destroy a yard by walking over plants and grass.
Cleaning up after a 100-pound tortoise can also take some getting used to. “I go out every day. If I see him do it, I try to go out right away. He poops like a big dog.” Sulimoff said. “If I don’t, he walks over it so it becomes like a cow patty, basically.”
Sulimoff added, “Pooh got his name not because of Winnie-the-Pooh, but because he pooped a lot!”
She spends around $3 per day on Pooh’s food. She usually buys it at Trader Joe’s, but sometimes hits up the farmer’s market or grocery store when they are cleaning up vegetables and have leftover scraps. Sulimoff said, “Prices have definitely gone up.”
“My husband tries to will him away every day. Do you want it? Do you want the turtle?” Sulimoff said, “He does like Pooh, but it’s another expense.”
In the past, Pooh used to roam around the yard and Sulimoff would let him roam around out front when everyone on her street still had real grass. Sometimes he would make it down the street before she remembered he was out there so she ended up writing her phone number on his shell. She would be inside and get a call about a lost tortoise.
Nowadays, he has been featured on the application NextDoor. “Someone was saying you should go by and see it. It made me nervous because maybe someone would steal him,” she said. “They were talking about Pooh and then someone put my address so I was like can you take my address off? I felt a little exposed.”
Pooh is not the only tortoise who has gone wandering around Seal Beach. Amidst the usual dogs, cats and home improvement posts on Nextdoor, at least three tortoises were on the loose recently. One post from Alamitos Heights said “turtle on the run! Is this your turtle?”
All three tortoises were reunited with their families.
Sulimoff said people tell her all the time that they stopped by to visit Pooh, “It’s kind of cool, it’s something different, something you don’t see every day,” Sulimoff said. “If they experience something interesting and different, I think that’s kind of fun.”
Since a healthy spur-thighed sulcata tortoise like Pooh can live over 100 years, he will likely outlive his human family. Sulimoff said, jokingly, “Tortoise sanctuary. No, we’ll put him in the trust.”
