Tortoise missing for months found a mile from home

A tortoise missing for nine months has been found a mile from home to the delight of his baffled owner.

Rachel Etches had owned Leonardo for 13 years when the beloved pet disappeared from the garden of her Ulverston home, in Cumbria, last July.

A social media campaign was set up to find the reptile and finally a dog walker spotted him walking down a street and took him to a pet shop where staff helped track down his owner.

Mrs Etches said: "He's led a very comfortable life for 13 years under a heat lamp in my house, so we didn't think he was going to survive the winter being out for the first time."

She said she believed her pet had hibernated for winter and then woke up once the weather had started improving.

When he was handed in to Ulverston's Little Beasties pet shop, the tortoise was unscathed, except for a sore eye.

"He's gone on his travels around our little hamlet and he was found about a mile from our house," Mrs Etches said.

"It was totally my fault, we were out in the garden, we'd just had our second child, I got a bit distracted and he just wandered off out of our sight."

It was not the first time that Leonardo had had a taste of freedom.

He escaped a few years ago, but on this occasion was only missing for a couple of days before being found.

"They're very adventurous beings, they always test the boundaries of wherever they're put," Mrs Etches said.

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