Wyomingites normally wouldn’t expect to find giant tortoises grazing on their front lawns, yet that's what some people in Cody have been waking up to.
Brittany Swope posted pictures of the large tortoise she found on her lawn this past week, hoping to find its owner.
While most Cody residents see the photo and chuckle at a bizarre animal encounter, Sabrina Hanson immediately recognized the shell and knew Sweet Pea had escaped.
Again.
"Some friends of mine were visiting, so we ran a host from the side of our house to their RV to fill it up with water," Hanson told Cowboy State Daily. "And Sweet Pea knows when that gate is open."
As fast as a tortoise can — which is surprisingly quick — Sweet Pea bolted out of Hanson's backyard and traveled a block away before finding the perfect lawn to graze on.
Hanson quickly retrieved her runaway tortoise and brought him home.
"I guess he scared the people who found him, because he hissed at them" she said. "It was probably because they disturbed his eating on his little adventure."
Reptile Rescue
Sweet Pea is an endangered sulcata, or African spurred tortoise. Native to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert on continental Africa, sulcata tortoises are the third-largest species of tortoise in the world.
Sweet Pea has lived with Hanson's family for six years, since she rescued him from the 55-gallon fish tank he had been living in for most of his life.
As a previous tortoise owner, she knew he needed more space and better food.
"He's not supposed to have pyramids on his shell," she said. "His previous owner fed him a lot of lettuce, and the water content created the pyramids. You want to avoid any long exposure to lettuce."
Sweet Pea now has a grassy yard to roam and dig in, and an insulated shed where he spends his nights and winters. Hanson believes he's around 12 years old, meaning he has a lot of life to live.
"They can live between 80 and 100 years and reach 250 pounds," she said. "My daughter knows she's not inheriting a lot of money from me. She's getting a tortoise."
He apparently also has a sense of adventure.
Sulcata Stylings
Sulcata tortoises can be stubborn, obstinate and territorial, and Hanson said Sweet Pea is the curmudgeonly king of their home. She knows that life with Sweet Pea is on Sweet Pea's terms.
"He will take care of himself," she said. "If there's something in my yard that he doesn't like, it will be moved. Lawn furniture ends up out in the yard if they're not where he wants them, and he's dumped over our grill before."
Hanson has a tall privacy fence around the perimeter of her yard. If Sweet Pea could see through the fence, he'd be more determined to get out of the yard, and sulcatas can be adept escape artists.
"They can be very destructive," she said. "The other day, he dug a hole that almost ended up in my neighbor's yard. They can quickly dig holes, so it's definitely something you need to pay attention to."
Hanson owns two mastiffs that tower over Sweet Pea. However, they are completely deferential to their reptilian overlord.
"My dogs don't seem to bother him," he said. "He nipped the one before, and he's never been touched since."
Sweet Pea doesn't shy away from strangers who come to visit him, but will make his displeasure known if he gets a bad impression. If hissing isn't enough, Hanson said he can be tempted to bite at exposed toes.
Sweet Pea has escaped before this latest escapade. Hanson said he's mostly content to spend his summers in her backyard, but will take any opening available to explore the outside world.
"He's a pain in the butt," she said.
Sweet Pea is a 12-year-old tortoise in Cody, Wyoming, that can’t seem to stay in his own lane. He keeps escaping his yard to graze on the front lawn of neighbors. (Andrew Rossi, Cowboy State Daily) 
Sweet Pea enjoys a peach as a tasty treat. Sulcata tortoises primarily eat grass and hay, while occasionally enjoying fruits and vegetables, making them fairly expensive pets. (Andrew Rossi, Cowboy State Daily)
Tortoise Temperament
Thermopolis resident Lindsey Reed is the owner of Godfrey, an 8-year-old, 50-pound sulcata tortoise. She was 5 months old and smaller than Reed's hand when she brought her home.
"He's actually a female," she said. "You can't really sex them until they're a certain size. I got Godfrey when he was young, I just assumed he was a male, but he's a female."
Reed also has a privacy fence surrounding her backyard to prevent Godfrey from spotting greener pastures beyond. She coexists with a dog and three smaller Russian tortoises.
Two of Reed's Russian tortoises have escaped in the past. When her male Russian dug a 4-foot tunnel under the fence and into the neighbor's yard, another tortoise followed.
Godfrey has never escaped, but is just as destructive in her yard as Sweet Pea is in Hanson's. She likes to dig, climb, and reorganize her world to her liking and can be surprisingly quick when it suits her.
"They can be quite fast," Reed said. "If you have something they want, or if they, you know, just have a destination in mind, they can move pretty quick, and it can be easy to lose track of them."
High-Maintenance Pets
Since Hanson rescued Sweet Pea, he's been living on grass and hay as his primary food sources. Lettuce has become an occasional treat, along with watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables.
"During the summer, he's hanging out in the yard eating the grass," Hanson said. "He loves dandelions. He does go into a sort of hibernation in the winter, but they don't really hibernate."
Hanson and Reed have specially built sheds for their sulcatas. The sheds are fully insulated, electrified and covered with heat lamps so the cold-blooded tortoises can manage their temperatures.
Sweet Pea and Godfrey can live quite comfortably in their outdoor sheds in the bitter cold of winter. However, they need to be moved inside on dangerously cold nights or during power outages.
Hanson hopes more people recognize how demanding sulcata tortoises are as pets. Seeing Sweet Pea in the 55-gallon fish tank broke her heart then, and she knows many other people acquire sulcatas without doing the research to properly take care of them.
"I'm glad we were able to help him with the situation as he was in before," she said. "It's not like the people that we got him from deliberately meant to hurt them. It was just a lack of knowing how to sustain one. Everybody needs to do a lot of research before they get one, because they are very high maintenance."
Sulcatas are also adorably small when they're very young but can grow very large very quickly. Reed said that growth varies from tortoise to tortoise, making it harder to know how a sulcata will grow until its grown.
"Their growth rate depends a lot on the individual," she said. “You could have a 10-year-old, 20-pound tortoise or a 3-year-old, 30-pound tortoise. Godfrey is pretty big for his age, and he grew pretty quickly. And they never really stop growing."
A Lifetime Of Dedication
Despite the destruction, obstinance, high costs and high maintenance, Hanson and Reed are the proud owners of sulcata tortoises because they love them.
"Sweet Pea is actually very sweet," Hanson said. "He likes it when you shoot water onto his shell when it's hot, he'll take food out of your hand, and he waddles over and wags his butt when he wants to be petted. My grandkids play with him, and he's usually pretty gentle."
Sulcatas are surprisingly intelligent pets, too.
"Sweet Peat knows his name and is pretty good about coming when he's called," Hanson said. "He goes to bed at a certain time and puts himself to bed every day."
"They all have their very distinct personalities," Reed added. “When you're not used to tortoises, you think they all look the same, like a rock that moves. But many people who see my tortoises are surprised by how personable they are.
“My husband's not a big fan of Godfrey because of how destructive she can be, but everyone else loves her."
There's also their longevity. The children and grandchildren of Hanson's 3-year-old grandson will probably grow up living with Sweet Pea.
"Because they have such longevity, you have to know where they're going if something happens to you," Hanson said. "It is a lifetime of dedication, but he's a really special pet."
If Found
There are still many lifetimes for the Hanson family to spend with Sweet Pea, which means there are plenty of opportunities for more escapes.
To prepare, Hanson isn't taking any chances after Sweet Pea's latest jailbreak.
"I'm trying to find a plaque or something I can attach to his shell," she said. "Their shell is their body, so you must be careful about what you put on it because it will get into their bloodstream. So, I'm trying to find something safe I can attach. If he ever escapes again, whoever finds him will know where he belongs."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
