Did She Come to Say Goodbye?

On July 18, 2007, I told you about a large gopher tortoise that I had fed at our old house which is across the street and about three lots to our west. I used to feed her bananas when she came to my backyard so I named her Hanna since it rhymed with banana. That day back on 2007 when she came to my backyard at this house, I took a banana out to her and showed you a photo of Hanna eating that banana. That was the last time I saw Hanna until yesterday afternoon.

Mr. Pop had Martini on his leash and was about to take him out the front door. When he opened the door there was Hanna. She was about three feet from our door on the tiles which form the entrance way up to our door. Of course Martini was interested in her so we let him sniff her a bit. We came in the house and talked about how strange it was for her to be where she was.

Later I checked outside and Hanna had crawled under the hedge. This morning she was still there, exactly where we had last seen her yesterday. Mr. Pop went out and checked to see if she was okay. Sadly she wasn’t. Hanna is dying. (I am crying as I write this because it seems that Hanna had come to say goodbye). I know rationally that is not the case but it sure does seem that way.

Update: While I was typing this post, Mr. Pop went to the store and brought home some bananas. I peeled one and took it out to Hanna. To my amazement, she is eating it. Maybe she'll be okay after all. We're keeping our fingers crossed.