"This page shares different stories about owners either misplacing their turtles, or the turtles simply go missing on their own.

One in particular comes to mind...
The owner was cleaning her yard and decided since it was such a nice day, she would let her box turtle roam the yard a little. She figured it would be fine because she would be outside the whole time, and could keep an eye on him.

She worked on a flowerbed for several moments and when she finished she turned around to see where her turtle is... but he wasn't in sight. She wasn't too concerned and just walked around for a moment to see if the turtle wandered to another part of the yard. Checking all his favorite hiding spots outside his usual enclosure, he still couldn't be located.

Panic began to set in as she checked under every bush and behind every structure. Calling her family out of the house to help, they all spent an hour tearing apart the yard she was originally trying to clean.

Thinking maybe the turtle somehow escaped, she went around asking her neighbors if they had seen her beloved boxie, sadly none had seen anything related to the missing turtle. Meanwhile the rest of her family scanned in and around their property.

After several hours, it was beginning to get dark, when all hope was lost the family made their way back into the house. The last to give up was the turtle's owner, as she headed to the door, something catches her eye making her look toward a large tree stump, it's her turtle resting in his favorite spot, the first place she checked.

Although it turned out to be alright in the end, it's an all too real reminder that turtles can't be left alone, even if you only turn your back for a moment.

I couldn't contact the original person this story is based on."

"Tecumseh is a three toed box turtle, by the time this story took place its 2007, I had owned him for just about 2 or 3 years.

Hibernation has passed and all but Tecumseh was awake and active, at the time I shrugged it off thinking maybe he only got up in the mornings, going back into hiding before I was awake like always.

After 2~3 months had passed of not seeing him, I was becoming more and more concerned. Sadly, because of the way Turtle Town was built, I can't just start digging for him until I hit the bottom, so all I could do was wait and hope. I told my family to check back there whenever they had time throughout each day, hoping that at least one of them would see him, but that was doomed from the start because only I can tell the difference between each turtle...

It's midsummer, and I was deeply considering putting Tecumseh in the "Deceased Or Missing" profiles, so much so I had already updated his profile, but not yet put it online. Later that same week I go outside at around 11am and look over the wall to the turtle area... there, in the pond was a big red and brown turtle, healthy as can be, despite being risen from the dead in my eyes.

I still rarely see him, 5 or 6 times a month in the morning hours, but I know he's just a shy turtle that likes to keep to himself."

"Last year I wintered two of my EBT's outside, Jim and Sarah. Come Spring I took most of the leaves and straw out and found Sarah but no Jim.

"Years ago I was walking by a river and saw on the other side a turtle which didn't look like any of our native turtles. It was hard to see it very well and on I went. A few days later I went to a friend's apartment that was near this river. All over the place were 'Missing Turtle' signs. You could tell by the signs that the family really worried about their pet, there were pictures of it from all different angles and a large reward offered.

I went to the apartment of the turtles owners but they weren't home. I went and got my friend and we grabbed some flash lights (night was falling) and a net and we went to that spot by the river where I had seen it. After a while we decided it was too dark and just then my friend says 'Hey, look, there on the other side!' We both shined our flashlights but the turtle got scared and jumped in the water. I knew it wasn't a swimming turtle (nor one that could take to many of the increasingly cold Michigan nights) so in the river I went and pretty much blindly went in the direction of the turtle made a grab and (I was really glad someone was there to witness it) I got it, it truly was basically a shot in the dark.

So, soaking wet we went back to see if the turtle's family had returned. They were there (they had been out looking for their pet until dusk which they had been doing every day since it went missing). When they opened the door and saw me soaking wet with there precious "Petusa" (it's name), they all came down. The parents and kids were all hugging me and crying (It had been missing for over a week and were starting to think the worst). The father takes his wallet out and tries to give me several hundred dollars, which I declined as accepting it would have defeated the heroic feeling I had (but, dang I could have used that money back then)."