Tortoise, or, OMGWTFWILDLIFE! Take Two

The setting: Farm near Goulburn, sometime during the afternoon.
The players: me (deepfishy), meganina (visiting for the weekend), Jayne-puppy, Kismet-puppy, MYSTERIOUS VISITOR

The scene:
ME and MEGAN: *talking*
(offstage, KISMET barks excitedly)
JAYNE enters, stage right.
JAYNE: *whimpers*
MEGAN: Is something wrong?
JAYNE: *whines emphatically*
ME: Guess we'd better see what's up.
exeunt all, stage right.

So we follow him outside, thinking maybe Kismet is hurt. She isn't, but Jayne starts sniffing around under the trees near the fence. Suddenly he jumps, startled by something on the ground. We move closer to investigate...

...and find a tortoise. A freaking *tortoise* in the yard. WTF?

Let me clarify my confusion: the farm is 25 acres. The house and yard is pretty much smack dab in the middle of it. The only things around us for miles are other farms, and a state forest. Where the heck did a tortoise come from? And how did it get inside our fence, which is variously sheet metal and wire mesh, both rabbit- and dog-proof?

We pick it up and bring it back to the house to show my parents ("Look! A tortoise!!!") and figure out what to do with it. I put it on the ground, and ( it curls its head under its shell, like a...tortoise. )

After a little while, it pokes its head out a bit. ( It has the cutest little smile on its face. )

Eventually we decide to put it near the dam and hope it's happy. I mean, it has claws on its feet. Claws! I thought tortoise toes looked like elephant toes, all blunt and non-threatening. Cartoons lie to me again!

It sticks out its legs, stretches its neck (which is meep! so long!) and ( heads for the water. )

It swims off into the sunset afternoon ( water. )

Jayne was still worried when we came back, and we had to convince him that, no, the evil lizard-rock-thing hadn't eaten us. And no, he couldn't go hunt for it.

First an echidna, which I could kinda sorta understand walking around. But a tortoise? Seriously, whut?


(ten photos behind the cuts)