The 広大な／多数の／重要な Escape: Lottie the runaway tortoise is 設立する a mile-and-a-half from home (but it took her two years to get there)

By Chris Brooke for the Daily Mail
Updated: 11:01 BST, 30 June 2010

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Maddie Tibble with Lottie the tortoise who was found only a mile-and-a-half away from home after going missing for two years

Maddie Tibble with Lottie the tortoise who was 設立する only a mile-and-a-half away from home after going 行方不明の for two years

Maybe she was born to be wild.

Just two days after Lottie the tortoise moved to live with her new owners in a 郊外の family home, she disappeared and 始める，決める off on an incredible 旅行.

The 企業ing reptile escaped out of the 支援する garden, into the 隣接するing school playing fields and the big wide world beyond.

Schoolgirl Maddie Tibble was 自然に very upset when she discovered her tortoise, given as a ninth birthday 現在の, had gone and 結局受託するd she would never see the little creature again.

But amazingly, almost two years later, Lottie was 設立する plodding 負かす／撃墜する a road on the far 味方する of the playing fields.

True to the 評判 of these most 不振の of creatures, the tortoise had travelled just one-and-a-half miles in all that time.

Yet にもかかわらず fending for herself and having to 耐える one of the hardest winters in １０年間s, she 生き残るd in 罰金 health.

Lottie was 手渡すd in to the 地元の vets in Grays, Essex, who was able to return the pet to her astonished owner because she had been fitted with a microchip.

'I just didn't believe it was her,' s 援助（する） Maddie, 10. 'I was really shocked I just thought it must be another tortoise, but I am so pleased to have her 支援する.'

Her mother Beth Tibble, 44, was 平等に taken aback by the 発見. The tortoise 消えるd in August 2008 and has just been 設立する.

She said: 'We are so pleased to have Lottie 支援する and in good health. We live on the 支援する of William Edwards School playing fields and all I can think is that she has been plodding around there for this whole time.

'Maddie was so upset. We did get a new tortoise but we gave it away because it was just not the same.'

Lottie the tortoise was found plodding down a road on the far side of playing fields adjoining the Tibble's back garden

Lottie the tortoise was 設立する plodding 負かす／撃墜する a road on the far 味方する of playing fields 隣接するing the Tibble's 支援する garden

Doubtless a hare could have made the 旅行 across the fields and 負かす／撃墜する nearby Blackshots 小道／航路 in a 事柄 of minutes.

But Lottie took her time and spent 22 months to 現れる into the open and be spotted by a animal-friendly passer-by.

Vet Lizzie Rigby, 36, checked Lottie over and gave her a clean 法案 of health. She said: 'We looked her over and then checked for a microchip with a scanner and she had one.

'We then 接触するd the 半導体素子 company to get the owner's 詳細（に述べる）d and 設立する she had been 行方不明の for two years. We were amazed, considering she was in such good nick.'

行方不明になる Rigby 追加するd: 'Tortoises are やめる slow, she didn't get very far, who knows where she has been??

'She must have 設立する somewhere to curl up and hibernate for the winter. We were very surprised because the last winter was so 冷淡な but she 生き残るd.'

Angela Wilkinson from the British Tortoise Society said: 'It's incredible, 絶対 incredible that this tortoise has been 設立する after two years.

'I once lost 地雷 in the winter and it was 設立する the next summer in the next garden, but this is amazing.

'She was probably in the fields eating dandelions and clover leaves and 生き残るd that way.

'It must have hibernated and dug 負かす／撃墜する地下組織の for the winter, that's what they would do 自然に. They then come out again in the spring. '

Lottie is a seven-year-old Hermann's tortoise, which 起こる／始まる from southern Europe.