Ginger was a lonely female tortoise who escaped from her home one year ago to try and find love.<\/p>\n
Single for the first time in years, Ginger dug under the garden fence and made a slow getaway across countryside fields following the death of her longtime companion, Fred.<\/p>\n
Her dancing days might have been behind her, but that wasn\u2019t going to stop her from trying to find someone to share her golden years with.<\/p>\n
Ginger\u2019s owner, 51-year-old Sarah-Jane Muirie, is now celebrating the return of her beloved pet, who she has owned since she was a 10-year-old girl and that was found last week by a horse rider in the rural English county of Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n
Muirie had put up signs around the area following Ginger\u2019s disappearance last June, but said she\u2019d given up hope after nearly a year without a single sighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had another tortoise called Fred who we lost a couple of years ago and a vet friend of mine believes she went looking for a mate,\u201d Muirie said. \u201cIt\u2019s that time of the year and she\u2019s always had Fred so she\u2019s dug herself out under the garden fence and through next doors before getting into some fields.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is that well camouflaged we thought there\u2019s no chance we would ever find her but we put up missing posters anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ginger was discovered behind the Mount Inn pub, a good mile away from her home, with Muirie speculating she had just come out of hibernation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA woman in the village from Greece first spotted her but thought nothing of it as they are native to Greece. But obviously its an unusual thing to see in the UK and it was a horse rider who spotted her the following day,\u201d she told the Southwest News Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmazingly, somebody remembered the posters we put up nearly a year ago and we then got the call. At first I thought it couldn\u2019t be Ginger but then realized there\u2019s probably not too many people around here with tortoises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muirie said since coming home, Ginger has been enjoying the sunshine and found herself a little area where she can sunbathe and eat food. To have a pet for 40 years, she says, is so special. It wasn\u2019t just a tortoise that came home last week, but childhood memories.<\/p>\n