After 9 Months on the Run, Escaped English Tortoise Found 1 Mile from Home Having Hibernated Through Winter

In the historic county of Cumbria, England, a woman was shocked to learn that her pet tortoise, Leonardo, had escaped from her home in Ulverston.

Rachel Etches often lets Leonardo roam freely across the garden lawn, which he greatly enjoys. Though hardly fast-moving, it took only a brief lapse in attention for this peaceful outing to take a wrong turn.

Leonardo slipped away just as winter loomed, embarking on a 9-month journey through town. Fearing for his safety as temperatures dropped, Etches launched a social media campaign to rally help in finding him before the cold endangered his life.

But when spring returned, a dog walker spotted the wayward tortoise slowly making his way down a nearby road—proof he had managed to endure the North English winter, locate food, and steer clear of dangers such as unruly sheepdogs.

“He’s been on a little adventure around our hamlet and was found roughly a mile from home. It was entirely my fault—we were in the garden, we’d just welcomed our second child, I got distracted, and he wandered off out of view,” Etches told the BBC.

“He’s lived in cozy comfort for 13 years under a heat lamp indoors, so we never imagined he’d survive an entire winter out in the wild.”