Last week, James Estell was visiting his grandmother’s house in Portsmouth, England, when he noticed an odd sight while passing by one of her neighbors’ garbage bins. The lid was propped open from being overstuffed — and through a hole in one of the trash
bags, Estell could see a face.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” Estell told The Dodo. “There was a tortoise looking out of the bin, staring at me. I thought it might have been an ornament for a pond.”
Then the tortoise moved.
“I realized it was alive,” Estell said. “He’d managed to make a hole in the bag, and he was just sitting there looking at me.”
Determined to save the tortoise, Estell called his mom and asked her to bring over a box. He then coaxed the tortoise out of the trash bag.
Estell had discovered the tortoise just in time.
“Lucky I found him, because the bins were being emptied in about an hour,” Estell said. “Thank goodness I found him.”
Initially, Estell suspected that the tortoise had been intentionally placed in the trash as an act of cruelty. But then a neighbor arrived and told Estell that the tortoise was actually another neighbor’s cherished pet.
With the tortoise safe and sound, Estell arranged their reunion.
“[The owner] was ecstatic. She was crying with happiness,” Estell said. “She couldn’t believe where I’d found him.”
But how did the tortoise end up in the garbage bin? His owner had a guess.
Some time earlier, the owner had been clearing rubbish from her tortoise’s garden habitat. She left the bag unattended on the ground for a while, during which time the curious tortoise apparently crawled inside without her noticing.
She then placed the bag in the garbage bin, unaware that the tortoise was inside. Fortunately, Estell happened to pass by before the bin was emptied.
“I think she knows how lucky she really was,” Estell said. “She’s had that tortoise for years.”
