when confronting her "room mate" - a young male black lab. And she is a big puffball (although really doesn't weigh much but has a lot of fur), so when she would rear up and hiss at him when he wanted to "play", she became a gigantic thing from hell confronting him and then would take off upstairs. The two of them never got along although the past year, things have calmed down considerably and they will now actually lay on the floor in the living room together without the stare-downs - but only a respectable distance from each other. 
When they say "torties are temperamental" I have seen it first hand! I think that is why we get along. I leave her be and let her come to me if she needs something, where my niece always wanted to pick her up and carry her around and play with her, etc. Bzzzzttt... not happening. She does give me the deep long stretch greeting when I pop by my sister's house and she is out walking around... and she was a prolific kneader when she was younger.
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