Most kids eventually reach a point when they have to say goodbye to their pets, but Caitlin Doran never had to deal with that. She was seven years old when her family adopted an African tortoise called Tiptoe, and they’ve been best friends ever since.
Doran always wanted to have an unusual pet, and her wish finally came true one Christmas morning, when she was just seven years old. She asked Santa for an African tortoise, and he granted her wish, giving her the best companion that she could possibly hope for – an adorable turtle named Tiptoe.
She asked for a tortoise because she wanted a pet that she could spend a lot of time with, and Tiptoe hasn’t left her side ever since. Taking care of a tortoise doesn’t always come easy, but she did everything to make it work.
“It is such a learning process because each tortoise is so different and you have to learn the signals, he gives you… Keeping up with him as he grows older has been challenging because we do have to make a lot of modifications… He is with me forever. It’s literally a package deal,” she told Fox News.
Doran and Tiptoe now live in Los Angeles and their friendship wowed people around the world after Doran started sharing their videos on TikTok, where Tiptoe is followed by 4.5 million people.
