Vacation’s over: Runaway tortoise found safe near Tennessee home

It was fun while it lasted, but Solomon the tortoise has been returned to his Tennessee home after being missing for 74 days.

The 150-pound African Sulcata tortoise escaped from his pen in Ashland City on June 8, WKRN reported. The animal’s owner, Lynn Cole, told the television station that a man and his son found Solomon about a mile from her home, grazing in a valley where a home is being built.

The man called Cole, and the tortoise was home within minutes. Solomon was treated to a homecoming meal consisting of collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bananas and watermelon rinds, WKRN reported.

“I guess that we will never know the full details of Solomon’s great adventure and how he managed to elude us all for so long,” Cole told Clarksville Now. “No matter his traveled course or intent, thanks to the gentleman and his son who happened to be driving by at that moment, Solomon is now safely at home and, as such, so much joy has been returned to our family.”

Cole told CNN she had owned the 15-year-old tortoise since he was a hatchling. Once the size of a ping-pong ball, Solomon is now about 3 feet long and still growing. Typically, Solomon’s species can live for more than 100 years, the network reported.

Sulcata tortoises can be found in North Africa along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

Cole said she will pay the reward she posted to the man who found Solomon, WKRN reported.

Cole added that while she does not know how the tortoise got loose, she has reinforced his enclosure to prevent another escape, CNN reported. She said she has reached out to the Nashville Zoo and a local rescue group with the idea of fitting Solomon with a GPS device.

But for now, Cole said Solomon appears to be happy he is home again.

“People are surprised to know that he’s very attached to his humans and he’s very happy to be home,” Cole told CNN.

Cox Media Group