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Of all the animals that a person might have to worry about escaping home and running away, a tortoise would have to be very, very low on that list.
Just don’t tell that to Tank the Tortoise of Carbon County, Pennsylvania.
For you see, Tank, who weighs around 50 pounds, was recently recovered after he was found about two miles away from where he lives after escaping for the THIRD time. (Tortoises average walking speed is usually somewhere between 0.13 to 0.30 miles per hour, or 3.12 to 7.2 miles per day.)
Tank, who calls the Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital home, was discovered on a West Penn Township family’s property in the Lehighton area of Carbon County after being gone for more than a week.
Tank’s owner, veterinarian Mike Nelson, revealed in a Facebook post that the tortoise went on the lam after sneaking out of his outdoor enclosure through a hole in the fence sometime around September 22nd.
“I think he caught wind that Dr. Mike was going to bring him in for the season, and he just decided he was going to high-tail it and go on an adventure,” Megan McFarland a veterinarian technician at Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital, told WNEP News after his escape.
“We walked out to the yard; all of us looked around the perimeter just to make sure [he wasn’t] hiding somewhere that Dr. Mike just didn’t see, and Dr. Mike noticed there was a hole in the fence that the little sucker plowed through.”
“I call him Houdini,” McFarland continued. “This is probably the third time he’s gotten loose. We found him the past two times, obviously relatively close. The last time he was missing for maybe about two weeks.”
On Monday, Mahoning Valley Animal posted on Facebook, “TANK HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!! Thank you to the Lusch family for being on the lookout and letting us know his whereabouts. We are still scratching our heads as to why he always takes shelter at your home when he decides to go on a stroll. THANK YOU for getting him back to us safely!”
Hospital officials say they will now be outfitting Tank with a GPS tracker so they can more easily find him should he escape for a fourth time. Which, based on his track record, appears to be a very good bet to happen.