WESTERN MAIL (Cardiff, UK) 17 July 06 Happy ending for Terry the tortoise (Robin Turner)
A tortoise which negotiated several busy roads, survived attacks by foxes and cats then went to sleep in a car park was said to be making a good recovery last night.
The adventurous "runaway" was discovered by Swansea shopper Jill Hughes while she was walking to the city's busy Parc Fforestfach retail centre.
She noticed the tortoise slumbering in a car park at the rear of the Fforestfach Health Centre and took it home to prevent it being run over.
She later took the tortoise to Swansea's Llys Nini RSPCA Animal Centre, concerned that the tortoise's breathing was laboured.
And she noticed it seemed to have suffered injuries to its shell and one of its claws.
At the centre, the tortoise was treated to red peppers, strawberries, melon and sugar-snap peas to "build it up" after its ordeal.
During its journey away from home, it had probably been living on dandelions.
Staff at the Llys Nini Centre discovered that the tortoise, which is thought to have been bitten by foxes and "swiped at" by cats, had been microchipped very recently.
Yesterday, the creature was transferred to the care of a Cardiff animal charity known as International Tortoise Rescue.
RSPCA Llys Nini Animal Centre Manager, Steve Byrne said, "We are very eager to get in touch with the owner, especially since they have acted so responsibly in microchipping their animal.
"And this tortoise managed to evade cars and lorries and attacking animals like foxes and cats who seem to have swiped at it with their claws - it deserves to be re-united with its owners who obviously care for it.
"The tortoise could have found its way through a garden hedge and onto a road which eventually led it to the health centre. I don't know how it managed to avoid being a road casualty.
"I took the tortoise to my own home for a few nights but the tortoise rescue centre in Cardiff has better facilities for keeping this type of animal.
"I hope it finds its owners soon."
RSPCA staff are astonished that the animal appears to have crossed a number of busy roads in Fforestfach unharmed.
A spokesman said, "There are no houses next to the car park where it was found so the journey there must have been a perilous one.
"I don't think it likely that the tortoise escaped from a car because the marks on its feet and shell suggest a fairly recent and fairly turbulent journey."
Llys Nini staff believe the tortoise is a male and is "quite old".
And because of marks thought to have been made by cats it is assumed the tortoise, given the temporary nickname of Terry, must have walked through a number of gardens.
An RSPCA spokesman said, "Domestic cats can get quite territorial and, if they see something like a tortoise making its way across their garden, they could well take a swipe at it."
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