As many owners will know, it only takes a moment of inattention for the family pet to bolt out of the door.
But a 16-year-old tortoise?
Stavi the Mediterranean tortoise made her laborious dash for freedom from Chris Barnes’s back garden in Bristol… and wasn’t seen again for 18 months.
Stavi the Mediterranean tortoise made her laborious dash for freedom from Chris Barnes’s back garden in Bristol… and wasn’t seen again for 18 months
A desperate search proved fruitless, and eventually the Barnes family gave up all hope.
Until this week, that is, when she was finally found – six miles away from home.
Mr Barnes, 30, had originally allowed 16-year-old Stavi outside in the belief that she would be visible, thanks to the red electrical tape fixed to her shell.
But she still managed to escape her run in the garden in May last year, crossing six parks and the M32 in her bid for freedom.
From Mr Barnes’s back garden, in Brentry, north west Bristol, Stavi managed to travel six miles as the crow flies – or as the tortoise crawls – to where she was eventually found in the eastern part of the city
From Mr Barnes’s back garden, in Brentry, north west Bristol, Stavi managed to travel six miles as the crow flies – or as the tortoise crawls – to where she was eventually found in the eastern part of the city.
As well as the motorway, her route may have taken her through the grounds of Southmead Hospital and round the Memorial Stadium, home of Bristol Rovers Football Club.
If traversed by a human, the trek would take around two hours. But Stavi no doubt took a little longer to cover that ground. This week she was handed in to a Vets4Pets clinic in Kinsgwood, who contacted the family when they found her microchip.
Separated Mr Barnes, who lives with his parents and his son, Max, five, said that despite her perilous journey ‘there wasn’t a nick on her shell’ when she returned.
However, whatever adventures the intrepid tortoise got up to during the 18-month interval, she is so far keeping quiet about it.