A Tale Of One Tortoise

Before I share this tale let me tell you that tortoises aren’t as slow as everyone thinks. Once they warm up and get going they can move at some speed (OK so the hare would probably still win as long as it didn't take a nap). One minute they are there the next… GONE!!!

So anyway…

We have a pet tortoise who goes by the name of Lily (I’ve no idea why her name is that). 

Lily the Tortoise

 When she gets quite warm and active she starts trying to claw her way out of her tank. So we let her out for a walk around the house.

Lily seems to have a fondness for hide and seek as she will wander off and hide in a corner, often pushing things out of the way to get to them (she’s quite strong for her size).

And then we spend ages looking for her under and behind various pieces of furniture, under the curtains, those kinds of places.

With the recent warm weather we have been letting her have a jaunt around the back garden (she likes dandelions) but only if there is someone out there to keep an eye on her.

The other day it was my Dad… who seemed to have forgotten the speed at which tortoises can move at once they get going (especially in the sun – she must be solar powered).

So one minute our house was peaceful the next my Dad is bellowing the war cry that he had lost the tortoise – last seen heading for around the back of the shed.

So I started looking for her, then my brother and Mum were enrolled by my Dad for tortoise hunting duty.

While my Dad grumbled about it not being funny and the rest of us telling him that he was supposed to be watching her I noticed through the chain link fence (and whatever the plants are growing in front of it) that our next door neighbour was acting strangely. He put a box upside down on the floor at the end of his garden.

After a few more minutes of searching the neighbour seemed to notice us… given that we were all stood behind the shed under a tree and asked us if we had lost a tortoise.

Lily had only found a hole in the chain link fence!

Who knows where she would have ended up if the neighbour hadn’t spotted her?

Well it took us slightly longer to get her back as the neighbour, having never come across a real life tortoise before, was reluctant to pick her up.

alligator snapping turtle

giant tortoise

We assured him that she didn’t bite and she wasn’t that heavy… after all she’s not an alligator snapping turtle nor is she a giant tortoise (if she was a giant tortoise she’d have probably taken the fence with her!).

So until we can get some sort of run made for her Lily has been grounded!