A 50-pound Missouri sulcata tortoise is finally back home after a nine-day runaway spree, delivering relief to her shell-shocked loved ones and community.
The wayward Liam, 13, “traveled 1.8 miles through creeks, construction and jungle” only to be nabbed in a nearby development, wrote Liz Wheelihan Friese on Facebook.
Liam was reportedly happy to be home after her long journey on June 3.
“She got a bath, a giant head of lettuce from my garden, which she chomped in no time, and went to bed in her indoor tort court,” Friese’s post continued.
“We can’t thank everyone enough for working so hard to find our girl and get her home safely!!!!”
Friese said the heavy rains made it easy for Liam to break out of her enclosure.
Liam is recognizable because her shell scutes — the hard, typically geometric scales that form a protective layer of a turtle or tortoise shell — are not uniform, and she has a dent on the side of her shell due to her previous owner’s neglect.
She weighs 50 pounds, the Friese family told FOX4KC.
Friese told KVS12 that she was grateful Liam could bring people together.
“Talk about bringing people together that a little rescue tortoise with a screwy shell could bring so many people,” she said.
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