NEWS - TORTOISE SLOW ESCAPE HAS OWNERS HEART RACING

Tortoise's slow escape has owner's heart racing

Aug. 4, 2011 

Lucky that Mel has a shell, because he's going to need it.

The tortoise escaped from Kathy Janka's yard Sunday and wandered down Michigan Ave. in South Milwaukee. A neighbor, apparently not knowing who owned the tortoise, thought he was being helpful by taking it to Grant Park nearby and letting it go.
On one hand, this is Mel's big adventure after a lifetime in captivity. On the other, it's a perilous trek into the wild, or at least the county park version of the wild.
Kathy and her children are worried sick. They have two other tortoises at home.
"My hope is that some child who was fishing picked him up and took him home," she said. "I'm praying someone sees the article and has him, or knows who does."
Mel is dome-shaped, about the size of a football and brownish tan in color.
An African spurred tortoise may not look all that lovable, but it's been Kathy's pet for the past two years since it was a baby.
"They're very amusing to watch," she said. "They're not super cuddly because they have claws. And you're not supposed to kiss them because they have salmonella. But sometimes you just want to because they're so cute."
Mel lives in a glass enclosure inside the house but spends sunny summer days in a pen in the yard. Kathy is not certain how it escaped, but she thinks her brother's dog might have reached in and picked up the tortoise in its mouth.
Mel then sneaked under the fence around the yard and headed for freedom. Kathy found out later that a neighbor lady spotted the tortoise and gave it to another neighbor, who took it to the park. She learned that Mel was placed near a stream that runs through the park and into Lake Michigan.
A tortoise of this type wants little to do with the water. "They can't swim. They're like rocks," said Teresa Ring, an employee at Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets, 7323 N. 76th St.
"So I hope no one picked it up and threw it in the water because they were trying to help or they were trying to be funny," she said.
The shop where she works has nine large African spurred - sometimes called Sulcata - tortoises. Most of them are rescue reptiles, dropped off at the store by people who were moving or uninterested in caring for them any longer. These things can live 100 years and grow to coffee table size. Hoffer's charges $129 for baby tortoises.
As long as the weather stays warm - and predators stay away - Mel could survive in the park by eating grass and greenery and by burrowing into the ground for protection. This is a species accustomed to the Sahara Desert, so the chilly weather that comes with autumn could trigger a respiratory infection, and winter cold is unthinkable, Ring said.
That's the urgency Kathy is feeling about getting her pet back and the reason she's offering a $50 reward. The 34-year-old unemployed caregiver has searched the park and posted fliers at the public library, Dairy Queen, grocery stores, factory break rooms and on Craigslist. She also has reported the loss to police, park workers, the humane society and the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.
For now, the hours tick by at a tortoise's pace.