Paige is always good for a few surprises and when we visited this trip it was no exception. She had acquired some new animals for her managerie. The more exotic the better! When we first arrived at Paige's house she asked us what we thought of her tortoises. I wasn't sure whether or not she was serious but chances are she was... and the kids went out to look for them in the yard. They came back puzzled about the seriousness of Paige having tortoises.. Paige sent them back out confirming that yes there are two out their somewhere in the yard... "just keep looking". Finally after neither kids nor I were successful... Paige came out and to our amazement she found both and truly how could we have missed them I'll never understand!
The Sulcata tortoise or torti... (plural?) were remarkable. The large one... barely liftable and the size of me when scrunched into a ball, was named Tommy, the small one, maybe 15 lbs. and the size of a large not so cuddly cat, was named Aslan.
These new additions to the petting zoo although... not really a pet nor something that you 'pet'... were such an attraction. Everyone wanted to see and touch... and some even "Can I lift?" They lounged in their pen all day and ate carrots that were offered to them... large crunchy bites at a time... count your fingers periodically!
The are surprisingly fast I thought since I was expecting true slow motion... but they could really move if they felt so inclined... and their strength was something I wasn't prepared for either... If something was in the path watch out... knocked over or pushed along the tortoise didn't care as long as he could keep going.
Which brings me to the big story! Paige hadn't had them long and the pen was still being designed so that there would be a strong enough enclosure for them to live in. Meanwhile they had the run of the yard... it's fenced in and was fine until one afternoon..... when Aslan was on the move.... He 'ran' away from home! the fence wasn't closed all the way tight and he made a break for it... we didn't notice immediately and spent hours searching the neighbourhood for the runaway tortoise!. Paige lives next to a series of large hay fields that were being harvested that week. So we determined that the tortoise wasn't on the street, anywhere in the yard or at the neighbours so it must be out in the fields....
It was evening when we discovered he was missing and we stopped looking when it was dark. The next morning we finished feeding animals and then the kids and I all went out to the fields. We formed a line like search and rescue teams and spread out to comb the field. We had already proven that they were difficult to find in the yard ... out in these fields we were certain we wouldn't have a chance! While tortoises may not be particularly slow after our observations so far... they do seem to be steady... and follow a straight line... so we determined that he would have followed the fence line and when it turned he would turn... We had been searching for close to two hours and followed our theory, doubting at each step that we would find him when Memo called out that he found a clue!!! He had indeed... some tortoise poop!... Never, I'm sure have eight people danced so excitedly around a pile of tortoise poop! It meant that he was in the field... that he was alive... that he was this far out in the field ... 1/2 mile from the house now... and that we were on the right trail! But it was also Texas... the weather was 98 degrees and climbing the humidity was 90%, and we were tired, hungry, thirsty, getting sunburned and oh yeah... walking through a prickly hayfield being eaten alive by mosquitos and chiggers! We called Paige at work with our great find, searched for about another hour and then we headed back to the house for some water!
Later that day we headed back towards the poop so we could start our search again... We were slightly encouraged by the poop still but it was wearing us all out. After another disappointing search session we were all gathered around the poop again trying to decide what to do. We really didn't know that there was too much hope! Miles and Sarah said that they had been praying while they walked because they didn't want to keep searching. The discussion that followed was rather interesting. How could praying help find a tortoise, Why would God answer a tortoise prayer, If they prayed then why were we all still out here... if God was willing to find the tortoise wouldn't he just make it come home. Sarah explained that "God loves all animals including tortoises and if we ask then he'll answer." Some kids were still confused, so tired and beginning to dislike tortoises for all the trouble they cause I ended their conversation with... "God does love all animals and knows everyone and he has said that if you ask he will answer... HOWEVER, you still have to do your part you can't just expect him to do it for you... and he works in mysterious ways so perhaps the tortoise would be waiting for us at the door when we got home or perhaps he would never come back... we don't know what the answer is.. maybe a kid on the other side of town has been praying for a tortoise and his parents told him they wouldn't get one but that he could keep it if it showed up all by itself... and so he was answering this boys prayer right now... who knows??... but we couldn't very well expect him to help us if we didn't even ask, so if they wanted to pray for the tortoise that was just fine!" It was quiet for a minute and then Tree asked, "Do we all have to say the prayer or just one of us?" So we stood in the hot hayfield around some poop and said a prayer for a tortoise!
Then we went home!
Paige was excited when we got home... She had been talking about her missing tortoise to well anyone with ears! and someone had suggested using search and rescue dogs now that we had some poop. But search and rescue dogs aren't allowed to be used to search for pets. She had received an email however from a lady who had a dog trained for search and rescue who just so happened to also be trained in searching for Sulcata Tortoises! NO WAY! Apparently a few years ago she had heard about a program in Nevada where they were training dogs to find these tortoises. So she arranged to have her dog cross trained. She has the only dog in Texas who has had such a training and would love to come help us look for Aslan. She couldn't make it that night but she would be out the next night!
We continued to look in the field a few more times... although by now we were tiring a lot faster so we started to drive the field in my Trooper going slowly with us all looking out the windows.
The evening the lady and her dog came we were all so excited. We needed to leave them alone to do their work since a large group of us would be too overwhelming for the dog. So we followed at quite a distance and whispered! It took all of 8 minutes before we heard the yells... He did it... I can't believe it! We took off running and sure enough Paige was returning with the turtle in hand! We'll never know if the turtle had finished with his adventure and was heading home on his own or if he would never have come home if we hadn't sent the dog after him but we were amazed!
We tested out the dog by having Memo hide in a tree and then the dog found him... it was like a variation of hide and seek. Both dog and master were very patient with the crazy bunch of us! We reunited Aslan and Tommy who I'm sure were happy to see each other.. (it's not easy to tell what the emotions of an African Sulcata Tortoise are). Paige slept well that night knowing that the tortoises were safely locked up in the horse trailer until the enclosure could be securely finished for them!
