On Monday, 7 May, Imogen Beresford-Bone and her family lost their beloved pet, Tummy the Tortoise. They believe that he escaped from his new enclosure in their garden in Wanborough.
Tummy is a yellow Horsefield breed with a small chip on the left-hand side of his beak. The family are distraught and worried about the poor tortoise as he has recently been ill with a small scar on his neck from his feeding tube.
Imogen says, “He lives back at home in Wanborough with my parents as I live in Reading and can’t have pets on my rental agreement.
“He’s gone missing for a couple of hours before, so they hoped they would find him quickly but they didn’t. They told me a day or so later and obviously I was completely distraught.
“They’d gone through the garden multiple times to no luck. We think he must have escaped through a tiny gap in his enclosure and gone on a walkabout. We think theft from the garden is unlikely, but there were lots of people in our village for the Scarecrow trail that may have picked him up if he got out of the garden.”
She has worked extremely hard this past week, using Twitter and Facebook to increase awareness of her lost tortoise and has amassed a huge amount of followers. She appeared on BBC Wiltshire on Monday and huge names such as McFly’s Tom Fletcher, Olympic swimmer Mark Foster, and even cast members of Casualty have shared the cause on Twitter.
“I’ve loved tortoises ever since I was a kid. When I started earning a real wage, I guess I got a bit excited and decided the most adult thing I could do was to finally buy one for myself.
“Tummy as a name started as a bit of a joke really, as the alliteration of “Tummy The Tortoise” was somewhat amusing. But it was so endearing that it ended up sticking.”
For updates on the situation, you can join the Facebook group, Help Find Tummy The Tortoise.
If you find Tummy, you should keep him in a warm place, for example, a box in an airing cupboard or with a warm hot water bottle wrapped in a towel, and contact Imogen on Twitter at @immi_beresford or call 07726910802. The family are offering a £100 reward upon his return.
