A lost tortoise comes home

This story starts with a birthday wish and ends with a miracle.

Back in early 2021, when Rory Bell was counting down to his 9^th birthday, the animal lover asked his parents for a tortoise. The pet stores were all sold out, so Rory’s mom, Molly, tracked one down that they could rescue through the Maryland Turtle and Tortoise Society.

Late in February, Rory received his birthday gift, a 9-year-old Russian Tortoise he named Dug for his love of digging. Dug settled right into his new home.

One August day, Dug—who’s a desert tortoise—was taking in the sunshine inside a brick enclosure in the yard when he escaped. The Bells believe the tortoise used his long claws to climb over the brick and go out into the yard. Then he just kept moving. By the time the family realized he was gone, Dug was nowhere to be found.

A search party of family and friends looking over the course of a couple days, couldn’t find the tortoise. They did find a diamondback turtle and brought him temporarily inside, but no one was fooled. He had orange and red markings, and he wasn’t friendly like Dug. They let him go.

They missed Dug, and Rory thought of him often.

“I prayed for him,” Rory said. “Me and my mom, when we’re riding to school, we say a decade of the Rosary. We each say a Hail Mary and pray for someone. I prayed for Dug.”

During Advent, on their drive to St. Joseph’s School in Cockeysville, Maryland, where Rory is in fourth grade, Rory’s first Hail Mary was always for Dug. Every day, he prayed for Dug to be OK in the wilderness.

But the Bells never actually thought they would see Dug again—until Saturday, when they were on their way to a Preakness party, and Molly happened to be looking at their neighborhood Facebook page. She was scrolling when she saw that one of her neighbors, Mary Wyak Johnson, had posted a picture of a tortoise.

Mary—whose house is a little less than a half-mile away—had seen the tortoise in her garden, photographed it, and sent the picture to a friend who is an expert on turtles and tortoises. He told her it was likely a pet and encouraged her to try to find the owner. So, Mary posted the photo on Facebook for her neighbors to see—and put Dug in a box and gave him some salad.

“We saw that picture, and we just knew in our hearts that it was Dug,” Molly said.

When they went to pick him up, the tortoise heard their voices and poked his head out of his shell, craning to look for Rory and his family. He remembered them and is safely back home.

The Bells will never know the story of what Dug experienced during his nine-month adventure. And they are marveling that a desert tortoise made it through a Timonium winter. But the St. Joseph’s Church parishioners are thrilled that he has returned to the family, which includes Rory’s brothers, Declan and Mac, who are students at Loyola Blakefield, and Rory’s father, Dyer, who is a Loyola Blakefield graduate.

“We really believe the power of the Holy Spirit was watching over him the whole way,” Molly said. “And we are really grateful for this amazing neighborhood.”

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