how good is Shell Shield?

I’ve had a raptor for most of my time in WoW, and I’m now level 70. It’s a great pet, but it has trouble tanking high 60′s elite mobs (referring to non-quest elites, which are feasible for pets to tank). It just tends to die earlier than I’d like, since it has [relatively] low HP and armor. I end up using most of my mana (and wasting lots of time) trying to heal it.
I was thinking of getting myself a situational pet for cases like this. The most purely defensive pet I could find was a turtle, mostly due to its Shell Shield skill. To me, it seems like a make-or-break ability in an elite fight (or for tanking multiple mobs), assuming it can hold agro.
The problem is, the highest level turtle in the game (according to petopia) is level 54. I went out and tamed one, and gained 2 levels for it killing greens (I had to melee a lot!) which took me 3+ hours. Since it will require many days to get it to level 70, I was wondering if someone could give me a preview of what to expect once I get there, so that I can decide whether it’s worth it.
I am BM spec, and my raptor has 11500 armor. With 13 more, the turtle would have 13000. Is this a big enough difference to be worthwhile, and also is Shell Shield as good as I expect it to be? I haven’t seen many turtle pets on my server, so I wonder if this means they are not as good as I may think.
Edited, Feb 14th 2007 6:48pm by Broarrsecond page of the FAQ thread.
Edit: There a suggetion to a pet FAQ half-way down the page which Az answered about the same way as me. Don’t mean to flame, but plz read threads before posting a new one.
Edited, Feb 18th 2007 4:23pm by EU:
Utarius – 80 Warrior
Tyradar – 80 Hunter
Vardos – 80 Paladin
Daedros – 80 Deathknight
Gardon – 80 Druid
Gorgathar – 78 Shaman
Drana – 74 Priest
Xyrana – 73 Warlock
Urthak – 70 Rogue
Tyrana – 71 Magei was wonderin if there was like a faq for pets cuz i got some questions but im sure everyone else asks them too so i dont wanna sound like a noob-good items