As sad as it can be to see a sign for a missing pet hanging in a store window or on a telephone pole, it is incredibly heartwarming to learn when a fur baby has been reunited with its family. Often times the reunions happen days after the pet went missing, but occasionally it can be weeks and even years after. However one beloved animal has all of those other reunions beat. That pet was found alive a whopping 30 years after it went missing. As if that weren’t crazy enough, it turns out that during those three decades, the animal was in the same house as its family, living right above their heads in the attic.
It may seem impossible for any animal to live so long under those conditions, but it is something the family’s pet could do since it was a tortoise named Manuela. When she first disappeared, her family just figured Manuela got out while they were having electrical work done on their house in Rio de Janeiro. The family searched for her but after time, accepted that she was gone and moved on with their lives.
Aside from occasionally remembering her fondly, they didn’t think much about Manuela until 30 years later, when the family’s patriarch sadly passed away. Around that time, relatives went into the attic to clean out some of his belongings, and that’s when they discovered Manuela in an old wooden speaker box, alive and well.
As for how she survived for so long while alone in an attic, tortoises can actually go between six months and three years without food. Manuela’s family thinks she survived on termite larva, and since there wasn’t much water around, she likely got her moisture intake from the young insects as well.
The surprises didn’t end after finding Manuela either. Following her discovery, the family took her in for a check-up and learned that she is actually male. Manuel, as he is now known, is still healthy, though he gets to eat and drink more often these days than he did over the last 30 years. No word on his exact age but tortoises can live to be 255 years old.
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