KOKOMO, Miss. (AP) 鈥 Myrtle, a cherished pet tortoise, has been reunited with its family in Mississippi weeks after disappearing during a deadly tornado outbreak in March.
鈥淗e鈥檚 been through a lot,鈥 said Myrtle's grateful owner, Tiffany Emanuel. 鈥淚 know that he knows just as much as I do that every step of the way I鈥檓 going to be there helping him, caring for him, making sure he gets, you know, the help that he needs.鈥
The Emanuel family fled their home in the rural Kokomo area as a on March 15. They returned to find two pine trees had fallen on top of their tortoise's backyard home.
Myrtle was missing.
Weeks later, a neighbor found the injured tortoise. He was taken to the Central Mississippi Turtle Rescue for medical treatment on April 4.
鈥淭he lady who found the tortoise called me and she said she had run into the owners,鈥 said Christy Milbourne, the organization's founder and codirector. 鈥淪he said, 鈥業 think they鈥檙e going to be calling you.鈥 So, I was excited, and then the owners did call and say, 鈥榊eah, that鈥檚 my tortoise.鈥欌
Emanuel is now nursing Myrtle back to health.
鈥淚t feels good to kind of have some kind of happy out of so much sad and grief and loss,鈥 Emanuel said.
