The Case of the Missing Tortoise...

So last night we had a bit of a drama to say the least...

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday, so after getting Rocky out to play outside in our backyard, I got Dora the tortoise out as usual. Making sure they both had plenty of water, shelter and food, I left them to it and got on with my afternoon. So when it came to about 7pm and I got Rocky the guinea pig in, I realised Dora wasn't in any of her usual hiding spots. 

Calling on my mam and brother to help locate her, we searched, and searched, and searched. There was no sign of her. Maybe she's gone back inside the house? Nope, nothing. She can't physically climb the stairs so that was out of the question, so she had to be downstairs. It was getting pretty dark now, so out we were with our torches literally moving plant pots, crawling under chairs, sticking our heads in spider's webs and kneeling in bugs, and we just couldn't find her. She wasn't behind the TV, in the dogs' basket, at the bottom of the stairs, I was getting mildly hysterical by now. What if she's been stolen? Could a bird have picked her up by her shell and dropped her? We even ran round the block to look for her!

So after nearly two hours of searching, it began to rain, heavily. As the rain splattered outside, there was still no sign of our little tortoise. Feeling horrified and terrified at the same time, we reluctantly agreed we'd checked everywhere and called off the search. Leaving the back door open until we went to bed, hoping she'd come in from the rain, we went to bed still tortoise-less. 

Where the hell was she?

It wasn't until my younger brother burst into my bedroom at three in the morning, tortoise in hand that I could finally sleep. The little bugger had somehow managed to chew her way into a sealed plastic bag of gravel stored underneath a lounger, crawl amongst the gravel and become completely hidden! It was only when my brother in a moment of clarity realised he hadn't checked the bag of soil at the backdoor. Thinking it was stupid, but worthwhile he remembered the bag of gravel and voila. 

Thank god we found her in the end, but I don't think I'll be letting her to roam our backyard without a GPS tracking device from now on! 

Has anybody else got Houdini for a tortoise, or any other crazy escape attempts? I need something to calm my nerves.... 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS TORTOISE?!