THE OWNERS of a 100-year-old tortoise were left shell-shocked at the weekend after the pet which has been part of their family for 40 years ran away from home in Dublin.
Florentine the Tortoise fled the leafy Rathgar back garden that has been his stomping ground since the early 1970s on Saturday evening, after he spotted an opportunity to make a bolt for freedom when a member of the family inadvertently left a side gate open.
Once his owners, the Eogan family, realised he was missing they quickly launched an extensive social media campaign. Within hours, the plight of the tortoise had become a top trending topic on Twitter.
By yesterday afternoon the hashtag #rathgartortoise had gone viral, with users of the social networking site both appealing for his safe return and using Florentine for some unfortunate puns and jokes.
Gardaí in Terenure were contacted almost as soon as the family realised their pet had done a runner. In addition to tweeting furiously, the family spent much of yesterday putting posters up around the locality seeking his safe and speedy return.
“We are pretty sure he’s not dead because if he had been run over on the road in front of the house there would be evidence everywhere,” owner Cliona Eogan told The Irish Times yesterday. She expressed the hope that Florentine had made it as far as a neighbour’s garden and was lurking in the bushes waiting to be found. “He managed to escape very quickly,” Ms Eogan said yesterday afternoon.
Quickly? Surely not. “Oh no. He is quite fast when he wants to be,” she insisted. “You would be really surprised. He can go at a very good clip when it’s warm and the sun is shining. And it was very warm on Saturday. We always describe him as solar-powered.”
Apparently Florentine is quite a good walker, unsurprisingly as he has spent four decades prowling the perimeter of his garden. Ms Eogan suggested he could have made it a considerable distance from the family home on Brighton Road over the course of the weekend.
While the family remain anxious and are hoping for his safe return, they are optimistic and believe time is on their side as he can go for fairly long spells without food. He is partial to lettuce leaves.
Typically tortoises live to ripe old ages – the oldest one on record made it as far as 177.
