Last week I told you about a tortoise escape artist who went missing...again...from a veterinarian's office.
Now, Tank the tortoise has been returned to a Pennsylvania clinic more than a week after the slow-moving reptile escaped for the third time.
The Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital, located in the Lehighton area in Carbon County, said Tank was found on a West Penn Township family's property, about 2 miles from where he escaped his outdoor enclosure through a hole in the fence.
Tank belongs to veterinarian Mike Nelson and lives at the animal hospital. The hospital said in a Facebook post that Tank has now escaped three times, and each time he ended up being found in the same area.
What can they do to anticipate his next escape?
Hospital officials said they are planning to outfit Tank with a GPS tracker so he can be found more easily if he escapes again. Good move!!
In my original post a week ago I wrote:
The Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital in Leighton said in a Facebook post that Tank, a tortoise belonging to veterinarian Mike Nelson, escaped from his outdoor pen outside the clinic. Again.
"I think he caught wind that Dr. Mike was going to bring him in for the season, and he just decided he was going to high-tail it and go on an adventure," vet tech Megan Mcfarland said. Dr. Mike suspects Tank got out through a hole in the fence.
"We walked out to the yard; all of us looked around the perimeter just to make sure [he wasn't] hiding somewhere that Dr. Mike just didn't see, and Dr. Mike noticed there was a hole in the fence that the little sucker plowed through," McFarland said.
She said Tank is known for his escapes. "I call him Houdini. This is probably the third time he's gotten loose. We found him the past two times, obviously relatively close. The last time he was missing for maybe about two weeks," she said.
"The last time he was missing for maybe about two weeks," McFarland said. Hopefully, Tank will be home soon!
Photo: StHelena / iStock / Getty Images