A MIDDLEWICH resident has thanked a Dalton Way business after a generous gesture helped track down her missing tortoise.

Bev Cope, action plan manager at Middlewich Vision, became concerned after seven-inch Horsfield tortoise Winston was not seen for four days.

She enlisted the help of SP Energy Networks’ Middlewich team, who loaned her a thermal imaging camera.

The device saved the day, and the pair are now reunited after Winston was found tangled in bindweed under some wood.

Bev said: “He is a rescue tortoise from Afghanistan. It’s the start of the hibernation season, and they start burying down two or three-foot tunnels.

“The problem is that, with our different winters, if he gets trapped he wouldn’t survive the season. I am usually very good at tracking them, and we had started to rip the garden apart.

“Using the camera, we noticed a glow in a certain area and that is where we found him. It’s a good job we found him when we did.”

Fortunately, Winston seems to have recovered from his ordeal and is now ready for a relaxing hibernation season.

Bev added: “He was dehydrated and a bit dazed, which is dangerous.

“He was covered in slugs and things, which they hate, so I bathed him in warm water, fed him and he is back under his heat lamp.”