Family stunned after its missing pet tortoise turns up 2 years after disappearance — a few miles from home

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Hatched! Endangered western swamp tortoise eggs

Eight western swamp tortoise eggs hatched at Australia's Perth Zoo on May 24. The western swamp tortoise is close to extinction, so once matured, these hatchlings will be released into a Western Australia habitat in an effort to bolster populations.

Updated: A tortoise has turned up two years after it went missing from its home — and the pet's family is glad and relieved to have her back.

The tortoise, age 50, managed to make a "slow getaway" from its home in May 2021, leaving the man's eight-year-old daughter devastated, the British news agency SWNS reported. 

The family in England spent months looking for its tortoise every day, as well as posting about her on social media.

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Eventually the family gave up hope of seeing their beloved pet ever again, until a Facebook post surfaced in early June about the discovery of a tortoise and its transport to a veterinarian.

"We couldn't believe it when somebody alerted us to the fact she had been found. We recognized her straight away on Facebook," said the owner, who has three children. 

"Somebody remembered our appeals and posted asking whether this could be the missing tortoise," the owner also said. 

Pet tortoises can live for up to 100 years, according to some sources. A pet tortoise that is 22 years old shown here. (Fox News Digital)

After phoning the veterinarian’s office and sending over a picture of the pet, the family was "stunned" when the tortoise's identity was confirmed, SWNS reported.

The dad said the family was "devastated" when their pet went missing.

"We inherited her from my father," he told SWNS. "He was known for keeping tortoises, and she was found wandering, lost, 25 years ago."

Their tortoise, he added, "must be around 50 and possibly even older now."

"It turns out that a farmer had found her in a field and thought she was a rock."

So how did the hard-shelled escape artist make a getaway?

One day in May 2021, she "just managed to get out," said the owner, who added that tortoises "move a lot quicker than you think — she definitely outfoxed us."

He continued, "I don't know how she's managed to survive the winters, but she does hibernate, so I think she must have managed to settle down somewhere and just shut down."

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He also said, "She obviously managed to keep herself well-fed."

She wasn’t found far from her home, as things happened. "She had been found at an equestrian center about five miles away," the owner said. 

"It turns out a farmer had found her in a field and thought she was a rock," he explained, noting that the farmer's kids wanted to keep her.

Instead, the family "handed her over to the vets."

He also said, "We called the vets … and proved it was our pet by sending them photos, and we were able to collect her."

"We knew we'd have to get very lucky to ever see her again."

The tortoise has lived "nine lives," said the owner, "and we are very lucky to have her back. We never gave up, but after not seeing her for so long, we didn't think we would see her again."

The tortoise will now be housed in the family’s back garden with another tortoise friend "in a secure and upgraded pen."

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In an interesting twist, the family had been close to finding her just six weeks after she originally went missing.

Four to six weeks after she disappeared, "an online post said a tortoise had been found on the road about half a mile from our house," the owner said. 

"We tracked down the person who had found her, only to be told that she had been taken to the nearest house — but as nobody was in, they had left her in the garden."

She "certainly has been on a real adventure for the last couple of years."

He continued, "So, she had wandered off again. Every day we looked for her, but she was not in the property and likely moved on."

He also said, "We would go out after school each day and check fields and by the roadside, but we knew we'd have to get very lucky to ever see her again."

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The family is ecstatic to have their pet back. 

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"We can't believe it," the owner said. 

Editor's note: Theis story has been updated to remove references identifying the family.