Heartsick tortoise home after fleeing

NEW MEXICO -- A possibly depressed, 150-pound tortoise named Plato made a break for it and escaped from her owner’s Santa Fe home before being corralled Tuesday morning by animal control officers on Old Santa Fe Trail, where he was backing up traffic.

The 15-year-old African spurred or sulcata tortoise was likely searching for her granddaughter Lola, who was visiting from San Diego and left on Sunday, Plato’s owner told Santa Fe police.

Plato the 150-pound tortoise is captured by animal control officers in
Santa Fe on Tuesday after he escaped from her owner’s home.
(Mark Oswald/Albuquerque Journal)

“She (the owner) says the tortoise loves 8-year-old Lola who sings to him and feeds him kale,” police said. “Plato even lets her ride on his back and gets depressed when she leaves.”

Plato was found at about 10:30 a.m. and may have been missing from his North Spur Road home overnight.

Plato is seen in police video flapping his front legs as an animal control officer struggles to lift him off the ground and put him in a truck.

(Albuquerque Journal - July 1, 2014)