(via @turtetears)

Incredible survival by Manuela, tortoise found in a closet after 30 years. I can’t imagine how she managed to live that way and not become ill. I also can’t imagine how you wouldn’t notice her in your closet? I hope you get the finest nom noms in all the land from now on, Manuela! 

Manuela the tortoise has been found alive – after more than 30 years locked in a storeroom.

She was finally spotted after being put out for the binmen in a box of rubbish.

And last night she was reunited with her amazed owners as they described her survival as “incredible”.

Manuela vanished from her home in Rio de Janeiro in 1982 and was given up as lost forever despite a lengthy search.

Her owners assumed she had crawled away after builders working on the house left the front door open.

It was only after dad Leonel Almieda died earlier this month that his children began clearing out a second-floor room he had filled with broken electrical items and always kept locked.

Son Leandro was astonished to find Manuela shuffling around in a cardboard box containing an old record player.

He told Brazil’s Globo G1 website: “I put the box on the pavement for the binmen to collect, and a neighbour said, ‘You’re not throwing the tortoise out as well are you?’ I looked and saw Manuela.

“And at that moment I turned white. I just could not believe what I was seeing.”

Click the image for the full story and another picture of Manuela

(Source Mirror News UK)