Cartoon pet tortoise smiling near a water dish, rock, flower, grass, leaves, sun, and clouds.

Smiling Pet Tortoise by the Water Dish

A cheerful tortoise steps past a shallow water dish while leaves, grass tufts, a flower, clouds, and a smiling sun frame the yard.

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🎨 How to color it

Color the tortoise’s shell with moss green plates and sandy tan borders, then use warm gray for the rounded rock, sky blue for the water dish, and golden yellow for the smiling sun. The shell has many separate panels, so use sharp colored pencils and fill each shape from the outside edge toward the middle to keep the black lines clean. Try making the water dish shimmer with a pale blue-to-white center, as if the tortoise has just noticed something shining there.

The story behind this coloring page

Tessa Waits for Silver — Each morning, before the grass tips warmed, Tessa crossed the garden pen to the shallow dish and set one claw on its rim. Read the full story →

Each morning, before the grass tips warmed, Tessa crossed the garden pen to the shallow dish and set one claw on its rim. In the water lay her favorite thing: a dull silver bottle cap that her keeper called junk, but Tessa called Moon. Every day she waited for Moon to flash, then counted one slow breath for every plate on her shell.

Until one windy afternoon, leaves skittered over the dirt with dry little whispers and covered the dish. Because of that, Moon vanished under brown boats. Because of that, Tessa pushed forward, inch by inch, while clouds crowded the sun and the water turned flat and gray. “Not gone,” she murmured.

At last the clouds parted. Light spilled down, slipped between two leaves, and struck the bottle cap. The dish flashed silver-bright, patient as a secret. If you can find the little leaves near Tessa’s dish, you’ll know where Moon hid before the grass tips warmed.