In Biloxi, Mississippi, an ordinary Tuesday suddenly turned into an episode from a surreal sitcom. Terry Taylor was driving along the road when he suddenly saw a huge brown ball ahead. "A child's ball," he thought. "I'll move it now, or someone might run over it."
He stopped, got out of the car, approached... and froze.
The ball blinked.
It was a 27-kilogram African spurred tortoise. A ten-year-old lady with character. Judging by her worn shell, she had already seen life and clearly did not plan to become someone's road obstacle.
Taylor later admitted:
"I thought I'd just pick up an ordinary ball. But she sits there and looks at me as if I owe her money."
The tortoise, apparently, decided to take a little vacation. She was strolling around the neighborhood, enjoying her freedom, and perhaps looking for adventure or just tastier grass. In the end, she was found exactly at the moment when she decided to sleep right in the middle of the road, disguised as sports equipment.
Now the majestic traveler is in a local tortoise shelter. The staff are looking for her owner and say in unison that her shell is in excellent condition — meaning the previous owners took good care of her. True, apparently, they did not watch well enough to prevent her from staging escapes of the "I'm a ball now" level.
The moral of this story is simple:
If you see a big brown ball on the road, do not rush to kick it.
It might turn out to be a tortoise.
And she will look at you with such contempt that you will feel guilty for the rest of your life.
