Lucky tortoise makes it back home
6th August 2011
THEY say cats have nine lives, but it appears that tortoises have just as much luck.
At more than 40-years-old, Boris has led an interesting and somewhat accident-prone life.
Boris, who is part of the furniture at the home of Iris Joyce, in Thames Avenue, Greenmeadow, was once almost burnt alive as he hid under a garden bonfire as it was being lit.
He regularly hides in compost bags put out for the bin lorry and on several occasions has been rescued in the nick of time before being thrown away. He also had his leg badly damaged by a wheelbarrow.
But in his latest escapade, Boris escaped from his back garden for the first time in his life and was picked up by a cautious and rather surprised passer-by who spotted him crossing a busy road in nearby Avonmead on July 25.
He was taken to Great Western Exotic Vets in Shrivenham Road where he was nicknamed Nomad by staff, and cared for until Wednesday when his worried owners found out where he was.
Iris’ daughter Carolyn Webb, 49, said: “I almost cried when I saw him, we were so worried and we want to say a big thank you to whoever it was that picked him up, because a lot of people wouldn’t have bothered.
“He lives in the garden and has never got out before. We have found the one place we think he may have got out and have fixed it.
“We had put notices up in the local shop then somebody told us they had heard a tortoise had been handed in at Great Western Exotic Vets.”
Boris was already a stray when he became part of the Joyce household. The family found him pottering around behind the Shield and Dagger pub in Greenmeadow 40 years ago, and when the original owner failed to come forward, they took him on as their own.
Carolyn said: “He is really quite a character – he just wanders around the garden and comes up to the patio door when he wants something, and he has got a sheepskin blanket by the radiator where he sleeps. It is quite funny for a tortoise.”
Vet Neil Forbes said Boris was fortunate to be alive.
“He was very lucky, it is not the sort of thing most motorists would swerve to avoid because they would never expect to see a tortoise crossing the road.
“He was in very good condition, there was nothing wrong with him. He was just homeless – or should I say he had his house on his back, he had just lost his parking space?”
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