Apparently turtles can run away..

Two christmas ago, when my brother ran up the stairs on christmas morning he saw exactly what he wanted. A big cage wrapped with a thick red bow around it. He grabbed the russian turtle from the cage and named him Tod. Not only did they become great friends through the past two years, but he became the neighborhood superstar. All of my brothers friends knew "Tod the Tortoise" and always wanted to come and see him. Tod was adored by everyone and given way to many carrots. In the summer we would take him out in the grass so he could walk around and get some fresh air. He loved feeling free instead of being trapped in the four corners of his cage. A couple saturdays ago, me and my family were doing yard work when we decided that we should let Tod enjoy the nice weather. We brought him out, and he started walking around our yard. After about 20-30 minutes of doing yard work we realized that we hadn't been keeping track of Tod. We looked around, but couldn't find him anywhere! Our house doesn't have a fence around it, so that didn't help either. A couple hours after we had begun our search we figured that our favorite pet would be lost forever. I tease my brother about this without end because seriously, how can someone loose their turtle? How can a turtle run away when it walks less than a mile/hr? I do feel bad for my brother though, he lost one of his best friends. For now all we can do is wait to see if he will find his way back. Every once and a while we go out to search for our carrot-eating friend and hope that someday he will show up on our doorstep.