An East Belfast woman has gone viral after making a video describing how she woke up her pet tortoise from hibernation.
Christina Cousins and her pet tortoise called Turtle have been viewed over 10 million times in a week after she posted a video on Tiktok of her waking the reptile from hibernation for the first time.
The five-year-old tortoise had not hibernated before when Christina helped him go to sleep in November last year.
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On the advice of vets, Turtle was stored in a special container inside his own little fridge, which was used to keep him at a consistent temperature that he may not be able to get if he did so outside.
While she was unsure how things would go when she decided to wake her tortoise up, Turtle quickly came round and started to become an internet sensation within days.
Christina said: "This is the first time that I have put Turtle down for hibernation so I did as much research as possible and checked with the vet about what we should do to keep him safe.
"I was told to put him inside of a fridge, because that way he would be able to maintain a constant temperature and if we left him outside here it may not be safe due to the constant changes. We even bought him his own special fridge to sleep in.
"After weighing him I left him in his box to come round on his own and slowly he started waking up and moving around.
"Over the next few hours I warmed him up and gave him some of his favourite food, strawberries, and he was soon back to himself again with perhaps even a bit of extra energy."
Christina said that she never expected to get the response to her video on Tiktok that she received, with her account usually just being for her friends and family to see videos of Turtle.
She continued: "I really cannot believe just how many people viewed the video in the space of one week and I have gone from having 30 followers to over 30,000.
"The account has really just been for my friends and family so it is lovely to see millions of other people see how wonderful Turtle is and I hope that it has been helpful for others who are doing the same with their pets.
"The response I have got from people has really been heartwarming and most people seem to enjoy watching him eat his strawberry at the end, he just looks so cute!"
To follow Turtle and Christina on TikTok please follow this link.
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