© Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star/Tammy Ljungblad After escaping a Lenexa backyard on Aug. 5, 2022, Fredericka, a Russian tortoise named after Fred Flintstone, was found by a 7- year-boy on May 20, 2023, and returned to owner Jan Langton of Lenexa.
Like most people whose pets have gong missing, Jan Langton took to social media when her beloved tortoise escaped from her backyard in Lenexa, Kansas.
“She went missing on August 5th,” said Langton of her two-pound tortoise who had the run of the backyard, but managed to burrow out between a fence post and the corner of the house and escape. “She can scramble lickety split,” said Langton, who added the tortoise is only nine inches long and eight inches wide. “Her name is Fredericka, after my childhood desert tortoise.” “She is actually a Russian tortoise,” said Langton, who added this is the second pet tortoise she has had and they were both named after Fred Flintstone of the 1960’s animated sitcom The Flintstones.
Langton, a behavior analyst, posted lost tortoise notices and photos on Facebook, NextDoor and an HOA website which alerted nearby residents to keep an eye out for the 17-year-old tortoise. She was offering a $400 reward to anyone that found the tortoise.
“Fredricka brings me joy, mostly because I rescued her from a situation where I didn’t know who would take her and if they knew how to take care of her,” said Langton. “I learned so much from her and she’s a friendly little thing,” she added. “You know, you can pet her head and you can pet her paws and all that sort of thing,” said Langton.
Desperate to locate her pet, Langton said she had people come over with a bloodhound named Ellie to search for her tortoise. “We went tearing through all the red cedars that are in the back there,” said Langton, referring to the heavily wooded area behind her house. “He (the bloodhound) was on the trail of the tortoise, but of course, we couldn’t find her,” said Langton, who added that the tortoise was not expected to survive the cold Kansas winter. “Fifty degrees could have been her demise,” said Langton. A local herpetologist told Langton that maybe the tortoise could survive 35 degree temperatures, but she was unlikely to survive the winter unless she burrowed six feet deep underneath the frost line to keep out of the weather.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and Langton had started to lose hope of ever seeing Fredericka again. She began to give away some of her tortoise supplies, but she chose to keep her lost tortoise flyers posted around the neighborhood and on social media sites including Lost and Found Pets Of Johnson County Kansas.
On Saturday, May 20, 2023, nine months and 15 days after Fredericka disappeared, Langton got a call from a family who lived in the neighborhood and they told her their son, Henry Miles, had found a turtle.
“Henry was ecstatic, he was so proud,” said Ellen Miles, whose 7-year-old son spotted Fredericka, the missing tortoise, as he was laying in a hammock with his dad, Matt Miles, in their backyard in the Falcon Meadows neighborhood of Lenexa.
“The tortoise was walking along the brush after a neighbor had just mowed the area,” said Ellen Miles, when Henry spotted her.
“My dad picked her up and put her in a bucket,” said Henry Miles. “It felt good,” said Henry, on finding and returning the tortoise. Henry, a first-grader at the time, received a $400 reward from Langton for his efforts.
Ellen Miles said her son had been seeing the missing tortoise posters around the neighborhood for the past nine months so he was aware of the missing pet. “He is so proud and it’s made him semi-famous in the neighborhood,” said Ellen Miles. “I doubt he’ll ever forget this event, it was pretty fun,” she said. “We’re super proud of him.”
The tortoise was found about five houses away, but the homes were separated by a thicket of dense trees and brush.
“I was overjoyed, I mean, I couldn’t even believe it,” said Langton. “I couldn’t even believe that that tortoise could survive like that,” she added. “It was just, you know, shocking that they found him.” Langton believes the tortoise survived by burrowing into a compost pile or a pile of grass clippings.
After a checkup with a veterinarian, Fredericka was found to be malnourished and dehydrated, and the tortoise did not molt as she should have, but she is now recovering at home with Langton. Fredericka has a hearty appetite eating blueberries and cantaloupe, among other things. Claw marks now dot the back of Fredericka’s shell and Langton said she believes the tortoise may have been attacked by a raccoon.
Fredericka, however, has lost her privileges to roam free in the backyard, and now has a fenced-in tortoise run. “I would love to know how far back in those woods she traveled,” said Langton. “I almost want to put a GPS on this tortoise in case she ever escapes again.”
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