A tortoise named Scuttle has returned home following an eight-month disappearance, having travelled just 300 metres from her Cornwall enclosure.
The reptile vanished from her home in Cusgarne, situated between Truro and Redruth, in August 2025.
With predators aplenty in the British countryside, her owner feared the worst during the adventurer's lengthy absence.
But earlier this month, a neighbour discovered Scuttle in a nearby field, completely unharmed.
Owner Fiona Sherriff, 58, said: "I was just elated and so grateful to my neighbours for finding her."
The family suspects Scuttle may have scaled a Cornish hedge to make her escape, as no obvious exit point was found in her enclosure.
She said Scuttle had been in her family since she was a girl and she felt "upset and mortified and embarrassed" when the peripatetic pet escaped.
Ms Sherriff runs the boutique B&B Cusgarne Manor and was devastated when her pet went missing.
Scuttle was discovered just a few hundred metres away
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When the tortoise disappeared, her owner conducted extensive searches across the area and sought help on local Facebook groups.
"Honestly I am just so relieved she is back, I was so sad something had happened to her," she said.
With Scuttle residing in the countryside, her owner raised concerns about predators including badgers, foxes and rats that could have harmed the wandering reptile.
Scuttle and her companion Pickford have belonged to the Sherriff family since the 1970s, when they were already fully grown.
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The Sherriff family has owned the pair of reptiles since the 1970s
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The family said they believed Scuttle was a Hermann's tortoise and about 70 years old, but they did not know her exact age.
Ms Sherriff inherited both tortoises following the death of her mother Pauline last year.
She said that it was "a big responsibility to have them" and she was "scared to death" of something happening to the pair, adding: "When we were kids we were given the opportunity to name it and because it ran so fast it got called Scuttle."
A neighbour spotted the wanderer in a small burrow at the bottom of an adjacent field.
The tortoise had likely buried herself underground to survive the winter months.
"She's been a naughty girl, although she didn't actually go that far away," Ms Sherriff chastised. "When she was found a few weeks ago, she was actually at the bottom of the neighbouring field, so she had obviously found somewhere she preferred."
The wet winter conditions could have proved fatal had Scuttle chosen a less suitable hibernation spot.
Thankfully, she is now reunited with fellow tortoise Pickford in their enclosure, enjoying generous helpings of lettuce and dandelions.
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