GONZALES - It may not have been a speedy getaway, but a tortoise in Ascension Parish apparently made a break from its home recently and was held at a local animal shelter before being reunited with its family.

They said an animal control team received a report of a "land tortoise in distress" in the New River Canal Wednesday morning.

The two officers, Curt Trepagnier and Isreal Millet, worked with sheriff's deputies to retrieve the African Tortoise and take it to Cara's House, the parish animal shelter.