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MISSING: ONE TORTOISE. Last seen: Dublin. Appearance: Possibly shell-shocked.
A family in Dublin is appealing for help in tracking down their household pet after he unexpectedly escaped from their home.
Florentine the tortoise, who is around 100 years old, escaped from the back garden of the house on Brighton Road in Rathgar yesterday afternoon after a back door was briefly left open. The Eogan family has been appealing for anyone in the area who may have seen him to get in touch. Meanwhile, #rathgartortoise has been trending on Twitter in Dublin this afternoon as tweeters have spread the word of the escape.
“We know he’s not dead because he’d be on the ground somewhere, it would be obvious,” says Cliona Eogan, whose family has owned Florentine for forty years. “But we don’t know if he escaped into someone’s garden or if someone picked him up or even took him”.
Cliona’s mother has put up posters around Rathgar and contacted gardaí in nearby Terenure garda station in the hope that someone finds the tortoise. Cliona told TheJournal.ie that contrary to popular conception, tortoises can move surprisingly fast.
We like to say that he’s solar-powered. When it’s warm and sunny he’ll fly around the garden. He can walk quite far: he likes to walk around the garden all day so he can walk for quite some time. He always follows the sun because he doesn’t like the shade.
Florentine can survive for some time without food. “He could be by himself for a weekend and he would be ok. He’s easy to look after. He eats a lot of lettuce, bits of cheese, boiled potatoes, soft potatoes – anything soft, really,” says Cliona.
However, he shouldn’t be put in water; tortoises can’t swim and would drown.
Cliona said that the tortoise is part of the family. Florentine has been with the Eogan family for forty years but he is believed to be around 100 years old.
We got him from an elderly lady who had had him for about 40 years. We had him checked out a few years by a vet in UCD who told us you can tell his age by counting the rings on his shell, so he’s around 100 years old.
The family are hoping he is found soon. In the meantime, we’ll keep an on this this story as it (slowly) emerges…
(Rathgartortoise, tortoise, and Rathgar have all been trending in Dublin this afternoon. Image: Trendsmap.com)
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Just seen him in bray with a 99,
had he been down collecting shells….??
Ye and Making some sand castles I think
Wow, 100 years old. It would be an absolute tragedy if anything happened to him. Not that something happening to anyone’s pet isn’t.
Hope he’s found soon.
have they checked the front garden? calculating the speed+wind+ time of disappearance= 100 mtrs travelled
on a serious note, hope he’s found.
Shell to Sea.
under parked cars? Any locals walking their dogs should find him. Best of luck!
Aww poor fella,I hope they find him. My uncle has one,he’s about 60 I’d say,they’d be devastated if he went missing
They make great soup !
Oh no. Don’t even joke abut that!
He’s starting out now to make it in time to vote no.
…whatcha mean tortoises can’t swim?!?…That news is actually after rocking my entire world…
Turtles swim, haven’t you seen Nemo :)
Slow news day…
Hope they find him soon. You know what they say about the Tortoise and the Hare.. :-)
As for the fable just mentioned, is that the same one as Achilles is going to race a tortoise? Achilles is going to give the tortoise a head start of, say, 100 metres. So they take off. By the time Achilles has run 100 metres to reach where the tortoise had started, the tortoise has moved further down the road, let’s say, an additional 10 metress. So Achilles must run an additional 10 yards to catch up with the tortoise, but in the time it took him to run those 10, the tortoise has moved another metre. No matter how Achilles tries to catch up to the tortoise, every time he reaches someplace the tortoise had been, the tortoise has moved further. I’m sure you were able to catch up with him in your garden, so don’t despair.
He decided it was time to come out of his shell.
At least he can hide in his shell if any animals try to get at him. Hope he is found….Please keep us updated Journal.
There are at least a couple of foxes in Donnybrook. Or at least they were there 3 years ago but may have moved sticks since. Just saying, like
I’m pleased to announce that our wanderer for a day has decided to return home. https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23rathgartortoisereturns. seems like home is where the heart is ;)
She wants a night on the tiles in the city. Lets hope she returns.
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