The Great Escape

Ogre the turtle hasn't been feeling well lately. Part of her treatment is she has to stay out of the water. She's not really happy about that since there aren't many fish to eat in the cardboard box she's been living in.

Kristie went away for the weekend and Ogre decided to make a break for it. Normally, you can hear her scratching away at her box¹ trying, one assumes, to find a way out. Steve noticed late Saturday that there were no Ogre sounds anymore and he got worried². He called Kristie to verify she was supposed to be in the box and wasn't at school or something.

Kristie got worried. Ogre had escaped because she was in the box. She asked Steve to put up the gate to keep Ogre off the stairs. Steve agreed but pointed out he had no idea how long she'd been on the lam. Kristie told him to remember she'd try to find somewhere to hide.

Steve searched the kitchen³ but Ogre wasn't there. Fearing the worst, he went downstairs, checking carefully to be sure he wasn't about to step on a turtle. Yhere, carefully hiding under some laundry, was Ogre.

Steve brought her up, put her back in her box, then put her box in another box to prevent further escape. He prodded a bit and decided she was alive, but maybe a little shaken up by her ordeal. She was also in the basement, which is a lot colder than the upstairs and that might have made her sluggish too.

He put the lamp on her and called Kristie to let her know that she'd been found and seemed alright. She was, not surprisingly, a little worried about Ogre's apparent fall down the steps. Steve promised to look in on her.

Starting a little after midnight, Ogre got warmed up and, with the taste of freedom still in her mind, she began working on another escape.

She's done nothing but try to escape for the last ten hours. At least she's not hurt.

1. In fact, it happens so much you eventually tune the sound out.
2. Ogre had twice managed to escape the box, once taking a fall to the floor from a kitchen chair. Not surprisingly, she was unhurt.
3. A much easier task since the great home cleaning of '04.

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