Stop! There's a WHAT in the road?

As E and I were going to pick up L at preschool today, I backed out of our driveway and started driving down our street, as usual.  At the end of the street, I always hang a right after I check to make sure no one is coming.  Today, however, I had to stop and park the car.  Why?  There was something in the middle of the road that, while I wasn't going to run over it, might get run over by someone else.  It was a

TORTOISE!

 

 

 

It wasn't just a teeny little one either, it was fairly big!  My guess is that it's someone's pet and escaped the backyard.  Its shell was about 12 inches from neck to tail, and it looked positively miffed that I was stopping his progress across the street.  I picked him up, put him in the yard of the house he was in front of, and told him "don't cross the road or you'll be turtle soup!"  Then, E and I were on our way.

On our way back, I looked for him but he was gone.  His owner must have found him and took him back home, or else he got super speedy and went elsewhere.  Either way, it's not everyday you run into a tortoise crossing the street!