Owner 'hysterical' after being reunited with pet tortoise missing for 18 months

Owner Linzi Cavanagh was devastated when Tallulah the 20-year-old tortoise fled from their home early last year after being spooked by building noise

A pet tortoise missing for 18 months has been found in a ­burrow a mile from her home.

Tallulah, 20, fled early last year after building work spooked her. Owner Linzi Cavanagh said she and her four children were devastated when they could not find their beloved pal.

They did everything to locate her and organised a search party. Linzi said: “There were 16, 17 of us with rakes doing the whole of the fields up and down. We couldn’t find her.”

She even put posters on her local ­ Facebook page and bus stops.

Tallulah was finally spotted by Bryan Murray who saw one of the posters and the very next day saw her while riding his horse close to their home near Arrington, Cambs.

He said: “I’m a birdwatcher so notice anything that’s different.

“I got a bit closer and thought, ‘I know that tortoise’.”

Bryan said Tallulah had made a burrow to stay ­sheltered. Delighted Linzi said she was “a bit hysterical” when Tallulah was handed over her.

She added: “I couldn’t believe we were getting her back.

Meanwhile, lost cat Rayne Beau made a 900-mile trek home to his owners in California two months after getting lost on a camping trip in ­Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.