VERO BEACH — Caitlin Henderson’s poodle, French bulldog and border collie were playing in her back yard as usual when she came home from work Wednesday.

But their shelled, spiky-legged, wanna-be-pooch pal Reily was nowhere in sight.

Reily, a 30-pound, foot-and-a-half long rare African tortoise who’s been in the Henderson family for six years, was missing.

And since Reily’s not the most deft-of-foot creature — though not nearly as slow as the stereotype indicates — Henderson, 25, fears someone stole her prized pet.

“Reily steals the dogs’ food and hangs out with them like any other dog would,” Henderson said. “He means a lot to us. He’s one of our dogs, basically.”

Henderson last saw her 15-year-old African spur thigh tortoise during a 2 p.m. lunch break from work at a local animal hospital. When she got back from work at 6 p.m., the tortoise was gone, even though everything else about the yard appeared normal and untouched.

She then filed an incident report with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.

The tortoise has lived in Henderson’s fenced back yard on Third Street behind Citrus Elementary since January, when she and her husband Scott moved to Vero Beach.

Before relocating to Florida, patrons at the Connecticut pet store where Henderson and her husband worked could count on seeing the store’s shelled mascot whenever they stopped by.

The rare African tortoise claims the African Sub-Sahara as its natural habitat so it’s not accustomed to swimming or going in water.

And the tortoise requires a specific diet, composed mainly of greens, vegetables, fruits and vitamins for digestive reasons, Henderson said.

Because his spike-covered legs and large tan shell are pretty distinguishable, Henderson doubts Reily could scamper around the neighborhood unnoticed.

Henderson said she’d offer a reward to anyone who can help find Reily, who will gladly walk toward anyone offering a fruity treat.

“He likes people and animals, dogs especially,” Henderson said. “He’ll suck into his shell when he’s scared, and he’ll come over to you if you have strawberries.”

Jonathan Mattise, TCPalm.com

Tags: bolo, dogs, elementary, Florida, missing, pets, reward, stole, tortoise

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 10:03 am and is filed under Crime, Vero Beach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.