Looking out for animals by the side of the road is just part of driving. Whether it’s a house cat crossing the road during a hunt or a stray dog trying to see into every passing car in search of its owners, we try to avoid them and sometimes call the authorities to keep them safe. But one Arizona driver got more than he bargained for when he spotted a desert tortoise trying to cross I-10.

The good samaritan stopped right away and called the police. A Department of Public Safety trooper arrived on the scene, and the two were able to pick the big fellow up and put him in the back of a truck. He was friendly and didn’t put up a fight. He even had his name, “Stitch,” painted on his shell.

You may not be surprised to hear Stitch hadn’t made a particularly speedy getaway: his people were already searching for him.

Stitch calls the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch home. The ranch’s owners came out after a storm to find a gate had blown open in the night. The gap left open was too narrow for any of the other tortoises in Stitch’s family to escape. But it turns out Stitch is just a little fellow as giant tortoises go. He waddled through, trundled away, and eventually found himself on the shoulder of the highway.

The ranch’s owner said, “I was surprised he’d gone as far as he did.” The ranch employees had spent the morning searching for their missing tortoise. They were relieved when sheriff’s deputies called to say they’d found the runaway. Or should we say, walkaway.

The sheriff’s deputies actually deliveried the tortoise home. “They came out, found one of our employees, and actually handed Stitch over the fence to him.”

The ranch’s owner concluded, “Thank goodness a good samaritan did the right thing and they rescued him and brought him home. We’re glad. And we’re glad that everyone got a good chuckle out of it, and everything turned out so well.”