Victor Township tortoise — lost for 13 months — returns home

VICTOR TWP., Mich. (WLNS) – “Missing Tortoise.”

The flyer and social media posts were the first peek into a Laingsburg community odyssey that lasted 13 months.

As a young child, Mason Kent was fascinated by tortoises – including the red foot tortoises Fred and Ginger that live at Preuss Pets in Lansing’s Old Town. When he was 12, he told his parents he wanted a tortoise. His parents say he came prepared for the family discussion, having done his research about species of tortoises and their care.

He made his case and Pebbles came to live with the family in a lakeside neighborhood in Victor Township.

Mason took the tortoise outside last August for exercise and sunlight. The sun, experts tell 6 News, helps reptiles, including turtles and tortoises, develop healthy bones, including their shells.

But, as sometimes happens with teens, Mason got distracted and Pebbles wandered away.

The now 14-year-old recalls the moment he remembered Pebbles was in the yard.

“But I just come running out the door,” he tells 6 News of that fateful day.

Mom Tracy learned of Pebbles absconding by text message. She finished work and rushed home to join the search.

When the family’s search failed to turn up the tortoise, they created a missing tortoise poster and posted it on social media. It left people with questions.

“They go so slow. How do you lose a tortoise?” some asked, she recalls. “You know, we did. We lost a tortoise.”

And while there were some questions, she says there was also an extraordinary outpouring of support from the community.

“We had complete strangers coming out and helping us look for this little tortoise – for weeks on end,” says Tracy. “People would get out of work and say, you know, where should we go today? What, you know, what area haven’t you canvassed?”

Neighbors and strangers were crawling through the undergrowth for weeks. a person brought a tracking dog in – and a man with access to heat sensor technology from the fire department deployed that technology as well.

Sean Murphy is the reptile manager and an education specialist at Preuss Pets. He’s also worked in zoos in the past. A wandering tortoise, he says, is not a common pet crisis.

“You don’t really hear of a tortoise disappearing,” he tells 6 News. “So, hearing that the community rally around this was really awesome.”

Despite a community response and concern, as October drew to a close and winter weather rolled into Michigan, Tracy says she gave up hope Pebbles would return home safe and sound.

“I think I probably lost hope a little sooner than Mason had, but, you know, for his sake we kind of kept that hope alive,” she says.

But that slipping hope was misplaced, says Murphy. Pebbles is a species of tortoise called a Hermann’s Tortoise. The natural range is the Mediterranean coast of Italy. In addition, an evolutionary adaptation developed by reptiles allows some of them to survive cold weather.

“Tortoises are very, very hard animals – especially ones that come from climates kind of similar to Michigan or close to it,” says Murphy. “They know to brumate in the winter – which is a semi-hibernative state. So, they’ll dig themselves down into the soil and find a nice spot to rest for the winter, slow their metabolism down. And then once it warms up, pop right back up and go at it again.”

But, with hope waning Mason’s grandmother obtained another Hermann’s Tortoise. This one Mason named PJ, short for Pebbles Junior.

Life went on for the Kents – there was school and summer activities. And their self-described menagerie of pets to care for. PJ settled in and the routine of life took over.

Until mid-September.

That’s when neighbors Judy and Jim Elkins made a discovery. She saw movement at the far end of their backyard. Jim went out to investigate.

And there, casually lumbering between one crab tree and another while munching on some berries, was a tortoise. Not just a tortoise either – it was Pebbles.

Jim says he vaguely recalled seeing a post on social media about a neighbor losing a tortoise so he took a picture of Pebbles and put it up. As happens with social media, another neighbor saw the post and contacted Mason’s father. Soon, Pebbles was reunited with a portion of the family.

But Mason was volunteering at the Laingsburg High School football game. One of his friends texted him that Pebbles had been found. Mason told his friend to cut it out, thinking the friend was participating in one of his family’s pranks.

Until his father arrived to pick him up from the game. There on the front seat of the car was Pebbles.

“And so again there was like holy crap, you were actually telling the truth,” he recalls. “And then like I just like – I just sit there for like 10 seconds cause I couldn’t even comprehend what’s going on.”

Pebbles now shares an enclosure with PJ. Mason says the two get along well, with PJ, who is half her size, following the adventurous Pebbles everywhere she goes. She got a clean bill of health from the vet, but Mason says she’s become a greedy eater during her 13-month odyssey.

Mom Tracy says the loss – and recovery of Pebbles – were important life lessons

“It was a tough life lesson to learn, you know, about responsibility and pet ownership and that connection and that bond and you know life happens,” she says. “But to find her and have her alive and well that was a whole other life lesson about don’t give up.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.