The Gilded Margin

Wild Wednesday| The Gilded Margin

I’ve wanted to tell this story for a while because every time I post a video of Zak, someone asks how I got him.

The short answer is that I was trusted with him.

The long answer starts with a little boy named Payton.

I never met Payton, but I knew about him. His mom and I worked together, so I knew she had lost her son to cancer. I also knew he had a Russian tortoise named Zak.

What I didn’t know was the rest of the story.

I didn’t know Payton picked Zak out when he was only four years old.

I didn’t know how much he loved animals.

However, I did know that Zak wasn’t just a tortoise. He was part of the memories his family still had.

Years later, after I got Bacon, I started sharing him on Instagram. I wasn’t trying to do anything special. I just loved showing people that tortoises have personalities and that they deserve more attention.

Every so often she’d comment on a picture or we’d message about tortoises.

I honestly thought we were just talking about reptiles.

Looking back now, I realize she was watching something else.

She was watching how I cared for Bacon.

Then one day I sent her a picture after I had finished another enclosure upgrade.

Her response completely caught me off guard.

“Wow! Do you want to adopt Zak?”

I remember just staring at my phone.

I never… ever… thought she’d ask me that.

Knowing who Zak was, I honestly never thought she would even consider letting him go.

My first thought wasn’t, “I get another tortoise.”

It was, “Are you sure?”

After I said yes, she started telling me more about Payton.

She told me he loved animals from the time he was little. Besides Zak, he had a bearded dragon named Cutie and a Goldendoodle named Roscoe. She laughed and said “if she had let him, he probably would’ve filled the whole house with animals”.

I laughed because… honestly… same.

The day she brought Zak to my house, a cardinal flew in front of her cars as she pulled into my driveway.

She told me her family believes cardinals are little visits from Payton.

I remember looking up and thinking how much I hoped she was right.

Today, Zak spends his days bulldozing through plants I literally planted for him to eat and somehow still finding a way to make me laugh.

Sometimes I’ll watch him and think about Payton. The person that I have never met but who holds such an impact in my own life now.

I wish I could have met him.

I think we would’ve spent hours talking about animals.

I don’t think of Zak as “the tortoise I adopted.”

I think of him as a gift that someone trusted me with.

That trust means more to me than I know how to put into words.

So every time you see Zak on my page, you’re not just seeing one of my tortoises.

You’re seeing a little piece of Payton’s story.

And I hope that if his family ever watches one of my videos, they know the same thing I hope Payton would know.

Zak is loved.

Every single day.

If this story found you at the right time, I hope it reminded you that your voice matters. Thank you for reading.