Pet tortoise lost for 9 months found, returned

Like most people whose pets have gone missing, Jan Langton took to social media when her beloved tortoise escaped from her backyard in Lenexa, Kan.

“She went missing on August 5,” said Langton of her 2-pound tortoise who had the run of the backyard, but managed to burrow out between a fence post and the corner of the house and escape. “She can scramble lickety split,” said Langton, who added the tortoise is only 9 inches long and 8 inches wide. “Her name is Fredericka, after my childhood desert tortoise She is actually a Russian tortoise,” said Langton, who added this is the second pet tortoise she has had and they were both named after Fred Flintstone of the 1960’s animated sitcom The Flintstones.

Langton, a behavior analyst, posted lost tortoise notices and photos on Facebook, NextDoor and an HOA website which alerted nearby residents to keep an eye out for the 17-year-old tortoise. She was offering a $400 reward to anyone that found the tortoise.

Desperate to locate her pet, Langton said she had people come over with a bloodhound named Ellie to search for her tortoise. “We went tearing through all the red cedars that are in the back there,” said Langton, referring to the heavily wooded area behind her house. “He (the bloodhound) was on the trail of the tortoise, but of course, we couldn’t find her,” said Langton, who added that the tortoise was not expected to survive the cold Kansas winter.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and Langton had started to lose hope of ever seeing Fredericka again.

On Saturday, May 20, 2023, nine months and 15 days after Fredericka disappeared, Langton got a call from a family who lived in the neighborhood and they told her their son, Henry Miles, had found a turtle.

“Henry was ecstatic, he was so proud,” said Ellen Miles, whose 7-year-old son spotted Fredericka, the missing tortoise, as he was laying in a hammock with his dad, Matt Miles, in their backyard in the Falcon Meadows neighborhood of Lenexa.

“The tortoise was walking along the brush after a neighbor had just mowed the area,” said Ellen Miles, when Henry spotted her.

“My dad picked her up and put her in a bucket,” said Henry Miles. “It felt good,” said Henry, on finding and returning the tortoise. Henry, a first-grader at the time, received a $400 reward from Langton for his efforts.

“I was overjoyed, I mean, I couldn’t even believe it,” said Langton. “I couldn’t even believe that that tortoise could survive like that,” she added. “It was just, you know, shocking that they found him.” Langton believes the tortoise survived by burrowing into a compost pile or a pile of grass clippings.