If you know anything about tortoises is probably the fact that they’re one of the most resilient animals on the Earth (besides being cute and sweet!).
They’re ideally adapted for life in nature that other animals would probably find inhospitable.
For one tenacious pet tortoise, survival and endurance went a level up as it endured decades in one of the most unnatural environments.
Family Pet Tortoise Went Missing in the 80s
In 1982, the Almeida family were sad when they saw that their loved pet tortoise, Manuela, a young red-foot tortoise, was missing.
At the time, the family was renovating their house so they assumed the pet slipped out through a gate left open by the workers and the pet went into the forest near their home in Realengo in Brazil.
But, they were wrong.
30 years later, they could have never imagined that they would encounter their long lost friend.
Family Reunites with Lost Pet, Couldn’t Be more Surprised
After their father passed, the children from the family decided to help clean up the cluttered storage room that was on their upper floor.
Their father was quite the hoarder so the storage room was full of things that weren’t necessary, including old furniture and broken TVs.
When Leandro, one of the children was going towards the dumpster carrying a box with broken records, a neighbour who saw him asked if he was also planning on throwing out the tortoise that was inside.
The tortoise was white and the family was shocked it survived three decades. They suspect it managed to survive eating termites that were probably in a large number because of the old furniture.
Even though she did well while in the storage room, she was probably happier to get reunited with the family that thought had lost her long time ago.
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