A “Houdini” tortoise that kept attempting to escape from his frustrated owner’s garden is now required to wear a bright yellow balloon.
Elmo the Russian tortoise, when given permission to go for a walk, would vanish for hours at a time, causing his owner Claudia Carter, 20, to desperately look for the “speedy” escapologist.
Before seeing him scaling a fence or burrowing under trees, the psychology student from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, would often find herself trimming back hedges and digging in her flowerbeds whenever he vanished.
With the “cute” balloon harness she made for the three-year-old, she now thinks there is “no chance” she could lose him among the lush vegetation.
More than 82,000 people have seen a TikTok video showing Elmo wearing the gear, and more than 12,000 people have liked and commented on it.
In the video, a shelled animal can be seen trying to get over some chicken wire before becoming stuck in it. Claudia can be heard asking him, “Are you embarrassed? made a poor decision in life?”
She can then be seen crafting the unique harness, which has a ribbon-mounted yellow balloon with a cheerful face on it.
Elmo is next shown pottering around the garden while wearing the ribbon that has been knotted around his shell.
This week, Claudia stated that Elmo is “trying to escape” like Houdini, adding, “We’ve lost him for hours in the past.”
We have been digging, trimming hedges, and searching.
We thought it would be a cute idea to attach a balloon to him, so we put a bow around it. He won’t get lost because of the balloon.
Because of how adorable it is, it makes us giggle and serves as a reminder of how small he is.
Frustrated Claudia claims she got tired of spending hours desperately looking for the “speedy” pet and decided to build the original balloon harness with some ribbon and helium.
Elmo typically stays indoors and has his own space, but when the temperature is over 20 degrees, he can go outside in the garden, she continued. He then tries to flee at that point.
Throughout the entire clip, it is clear that he has descended to the garden’s base and is scaling the rocks. He enters and begins to excavate.
We fear that because of the way his breed sleeps, he will bury himself alive.
We are concerned for his safety and his well-being if he ventures outside at night.
In his garden space, we have chicken wire. The outdoor space is large, but occasionally we put him in the garden so he may roam freely.
He always heads straight for the shade provided by the trees because he wants to dig down.
We’ve previously been without him for around four hours. People who claim that tortoises are slow have never met Elmo since he is quick.
I thought we ought to put something on him, she said, or he would just go off. I made the decision to inflate the balloon, which I then secured to his tummy.
In the past, we had utilised helium from birthday celebrations, but my mother said, “I have a tiny amount of ribbon.”
With that surrounding him, there was no way we could lose him.
With the balloon, I don’t believe he can flee as quickly as he once could, and if he does, at least we can track him down.
“When I uploaded the video online, the response absolutely caught me off guard.”