A 114-Year-Old Tortoise Lost — Then Found — On The Eastside

MEDINA, WA — Don't believe what you hear about tortoises being slow. They can disappear in an instant.

Medina resident Trish Carpenter experienced the loss of her 114-year-old desert tortoise, Abraham, over the weekend. And it happened seemingly in the blink of an eye.

Abraham was grazing in a patch of clover in Carpenter's yard along Evergreen Point Road around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. She stepped inside to make some food, and then he was gone.

"Just like a kid you turn your eye off of him, and they're into trouble," she said on Monday.

But Abraham returned home just as instantaneously.

Medina police put out a bulletin for the missing old-timer on Monday morning. As Carpenter was talking about the disappearance to a Patch reporter on Monday afternoon, she suddenly shrieked and dropped her phone. Her neighbor had appeared in her home and was holding Abraham.

He was in the backyard sunning himself, the neighbor said.

This isn't the first time a local giant tortoise has had a little adventure away from home. In 2017, Patch brought you the story of Rhoda, a 170-pound African spurred tortoise, who kept escaping from her home south of Seattle.