Britain’s most adventurous tortoise has finally been reunited with her family after going on the run for 16 days.
Shelly the leopard tortoise scratched her way to freedom from the Phillips family’s garden before legging it.
The 20-year-old was even spotted wandering down the road by confused locals.
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The family searched high and low before local man Will Taverner found the reptile on a farm three miles away from Shelly’s home in Shillingford Abbot, near Exeter, Devon.
“I was just tending to some calves in a field and thought there was a rock in the grass,” he told What’s The Jam.
“But then the rock started moving, and it turned out to be the tortoise.
“She can move pretty fast.
“She didn’t want to be picked up either – she was digging her claws in.
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“But I’d heard she was missing, so I rang the owners and they rushed to get her.”
Becky Phillips was chuffed to be reunited with Shelly.
She said: “She must have travelled over fields and through woods.
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“We’re just so relieved to have her back.
“It’s quite an adventure to travel all the way from Shillingford Abbot.
“Thanks to much to everyone who helped search and shared far and wide to spread the word.”
Her dad Nick added, “Goodness knows how she got there.
“But there’s been a big reunion.
“It was hard to know if Shelly was happy to be home, though – how do you tell if a tortoise is happy?
“I’m not sure what she’d been eating, but my wife reckoned she’d lost weight, but I’m not sure.
“There was a little chink in the chicken wire where she escaped, but that’s all patched up now.
“If she wants out again, she’s going to have to give it some really serious thought.”
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