A tortoise that went missing from the yard of her Florida home in 2020 has been reunited with her owner over three years later, after being found just 3 miles away.
African sulcata tortoise Ty was found near the intersection of Cotton Lane and SR 20 in Hawthorne, Florida, by a local resident on Oct. 21 and was collected by deputies from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO). The deputies’ curiosity was peaked by Ty’s large size and ridged shell that was different from the smooth-shelled gopher tortoises native to the area.
The sheriff’s office made contact with Gabby Scampone, 28, co-founder of Florida’s Wildest Animal Rescue, to secure a temporary home for the tortoise at their facility while they shared the find on social media. It wasn’t long before Ty’s owner, Dagmar Iglesias, reached out, sharing her own social media posts from Ty’s disappearance back in 2020.
“As soon as I received the tortoise, I noticed she had holes on her shell, which is indicative that she was attacked by a dog when she was young,” Ms. Scampone told The Epoch Times. “The photo in the 2020 post also showed the holes in her shell ... in the same exact spot. I 100 percent knew I had her tortoise.”
Ms. Scampone reached out to Ms. Iglesias that same night and arranged a visit for the next day. But upon seeing Ty, her owner was “in disbelief,” since Ty had grown during her three-year absence and looked different.
“I pointed out the holes in her shell and compared her photos, and as soon as I flipped the tortoise over to show her the underbelly, she recognized her, and once again was shocked and in disbelief,” Ms. Scampone said. “She said she looked for her for years and followed up with every sighting that was posted online, but every time she would rush over to go find her, the tortoise was gone by the time she got there.”
Ty, who was born in captivity, was found 3 miles as the crow flies from her home on Lake Green Sills Road in Hawthorne. “[We’re] pretty sure she didn’t travel a straight line. ... African sulcatas are known to be escape artists and [for] burrowing under fences,” PCSO said.
Ms. Iglesias was “very happy” to have Ty back. While it’s not the first time Florida’s Wildest has reunited an animal with its owner, Ty takes the prize for being the animal missing the longest before a reunion.
Ms. Scampone said: “We don’t know if somebody else found her and kept her as a pet and then she once again escaped from them, or if she was just eluding everybody for years since there’s a lot of land out here. I would assume she was surviving on her own because her physical condition is a little rough. ... Ty has some shell rot and the spurs on her legs have peeled off, which I would guess is from spending cold winters outside without proper heat.”
Ms. Scampone runs Florida’s Wildest with her boyfriend, Chris Gillette, who was away for work during Ty’s rescue and reunion. The couple has just bought a 40-acre property to create an animal sanctuary for neglected, surrendered, and rescued exotic animals; and their mission is to help educate the public about exotic animal ownership and appropriate care.
The sanctuary is home to tortoises and other reptiles, parrots, a skunk, a toucan, and a coatimundi among others. As it happens, Ty the tortoise was significant to Ms. Scampone for personal reasons.
“Ty is actually my previous neighbor’s name. We recently found out he passed away in August,” she said. “He was such a big supporter of us and our rescue, and he was so excited for us to buy this property, so this was a really meaningful rescue to me, too. The world works in funny ways.”
