Herman's gone missing before, only to turn up in the middle of some giant shrub so it wasn't too worrisome when he hadn't been seen for awhile. All the neighbors know about Herman so it was when a missed call turned up on the phone from neighbor Maureen that a frantic search for Herman was launched. You see good neighbor Maureen only calls when there is good reason. Over the years she has notified me when my son was stuck in a tree next to the power lines 100ft. up, and another time when said son and his friend started a 'bonfire' in the yard during dry season. So you see how a phone call from Maureen can put fear in one's heart and send me to her yard in search of Herman. Listening to the voice mail it was discovered that while the first phone call was missed, Herman was perusing the street. Petite Maureen struggled fruitlessly trying to lift him to safety as another neighbor came to the rescue. Herman was restored to his rightful landscape only to turn right around and do it again. Herman is pretty cagy, or anti-cagy, take your pick, and had gotten under the chain link fence. This is no easy task as there is dense fern foliage all along that property line, there is no bar at the bottom of this chain link and it meets up nicely, no gaps, with the ground. It seems Herman was able to get his head under the fence, then using the force of his front legs and the protection of his shell, push himself through. Fortunately there is an opening between the fences where the chain link one meets the wooden one and I was able to slip through into her yard in search of the vanishing tortoise. Contrary to my belief that her yard was totally fenced in, it was not. Luckily Herman was found meandering around her front court yard as this is where her plants are. His latest escape hatch covered, Herman is once again, ensconced in a lush two acre tropical paradise, for now.
