Foreign traveler found in Tracy
by TP staff
Aug 22, 2012 | 4820 views | 4 4 comments | 31 31 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Stray tortoise
An African Sulcata tortoise peers out from his shell in a kennel at the Tracy Animal Shelter on Wednesday, Aug. 22. The tortoise was brought to the shelter after a resident found it wandering on a city street.  Glenn Moore/Tracy Press
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One of the newest strays brought to the Tracy Animal Shelter won’t be looking for a bowl of dog food or a cat toy.

An African Sulcata tortoise was brought to the Tracy Animal Shelter after it was found wandering on Clarence Bromell Street on Tuesday, Aug. 21.

Animal shelter supervisor Ben Miller said the tortoise appears to be in good health, weighing in at around 25 pounds and is 12 ½ inches long.

Miller said the tortoise is most likely a pet that wandered away, or it could have dug underneath an outdoor fence.

The shelter staff has been caring for the tortoise, which they have named Flo, who has steadily munched lettuce and strawberries.

If the owner of the tortoise is not found, it will become available for adoption Sunday, Aug. 26, after the required five-day waiting period

Miller said the shelter usually sees a tortoise or two come through the shelter each year.

Comments
(4)
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justavoice
|
August 29, 2012
Animals from Africa belong in Africa.

tech404
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August 26, 2012
Just an update, this tortoise was picked up by the owner and is now home.
Tinfoil
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August 23, 2012
I have a tortoise. His name is 'Speedy'. He's licensed and is a Mojave Desert tortoise 'cause that's where I live about two miles from Death Valley. I rescued Speedy from someone who had grabbed him ashe was crossing a highway years ago. When I found him he was being practically starved. Speedy is now living in a huge 175' fenced enclosure being pampered and fed a whole head of romaine lettuce or green or red leaf lettuce every day straight from my frigerator. When the temp in the desert ghost town I live in reaches 128F or higher Speedy is cool and comfy in his underground den with sunblock cloth erected over his den. Desert tortoise are both the most-innocuous of creatures and our planet's most-succesful survivors. I hope that when I die I am reincarnated as a desert tortoise.
FunnyAmerica
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August 23, 2012
I like Turtles!!!


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