Saturday, May 7, 2011

Excuse me, your tortoise is out

Yesterday Merlin and I were out for a morning stroll and I noticed a sign tacked to a tree that said:

"Found: Tortoise in North Park"

And immediately I think, oh my god, I think I know where that tortoise lives.

A few months back, on the way to the dog park, Merlin and I stopped to marvel at a tortoise casually grazing on someone's front lawn. Whose lawn, I haven't a clue, because there wasn't a person in sight to monitor the tortoise's whereabouts. I assumed this was because the risk of the creature making a mad dash for anywhere likely was fairly low--hindsight 20/20.

In any case, while Merlin cowered behind me, maintaining a safe distance from the snarling beast, I snapped a picture and we went on our way.


So I'm staring at this sign, wondering if I should take down the number as I'm calculating the odds that:

1) There is only one pet tortoise in the greater North Park/South Park area
2) That this one tortoise walked the roughly one mile from where I first saw him to the area where this sign was posted (and presumably where the beast was found meandering)

I wondered, is it possible that, on that very day several months ago, I witnessed the start of his long, slow pilgrimage to North Park?

In the end, because I have the attention span of a box of hair these days, I got distracted (likely by a dog with a fluffy tail or something equally as inane) and did not take down the number. Today I walked by that grazing lawn and thought about knocking on the door to verify that their tortoise was safe and sound. But then a fat squirrel ran by and I forgot all about it.