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A runaway tortoise has been found a year after it escaped by climbing a 12-inch fence in a bid for freedom.
Maxi was found by dog walkers in the middle of a field just 0.6 miles from his Wiltshire home - having travelled at an average speed of just 0..00007 mph.
Susie Thomas and her neighbour Linda Rogers said they were 'lucky' to have come across the 14-year-old tortoise as he could have been crushed by a tractor in the field.
'It was very lucky that Maxi was on the path we were walking on, as the field isn't a right of way - we were walking the farm owner's dog so we had permission to walk there - so otherwise he wouldn't have been found,' Miss Thomas, 24, said.
'Obviously, with the harvest coming up, it could've been a very sad story if we hadn't found him.'
After finding Maxi, the neighbours took him home and gave him food and water before searching local Facebook groups for any mention of a missing tortoise.
Maxi, a runaway tortoise, has been found a year after it escaped by climbing a 12-inch fence in a bid for freedom
Susie Thomas (left) and her neighbour Linda Rogers said they were 'lucky' to have come across the 14-year-old
