A tortoise found 'legging it' down a main road in Royston has been nicknamed 'Little Mo' after the Olympic champion Mo Farah.

 

Sally Dobson, of Chevet Rise, Royston, said the male tortoise was seen making his way down Cross Lane 'at speed' last Thursday.

 

"He is delightful and can walk quite fast, that's why we've called him Little Mo after Mo Farah.

 

"I'm wondering, because he can move so fast, if he has wandered quite a way from home," said Sally, who's been doing her homework on tortoises since she started looking after him until the owners are found.

 

"I know he's a boy because he has a long tail tucked under his shell and females have a short tail that sticks out. I think he's a Horsfield tortoise.

 

"He's only little and I think he's lovely. He's happy to be handled and is very inquisitive."

 

She said Cross Lane is a busy road and the lady who found him picked him up and assumed he had come out of her mum's garden and put him back.

 

"That's when mum called me saying 'you'll never guess what I've found!' No-one has been knocking to look for him, and I haven't seen any posters up or anything saying someone has lost him. I've even been to the vets and told them just in case."

 

If no-one comes forward to collect 'Little Mo' the Dobson family will adopt him, Sally has said.

 

"If someone has lost him I just want to get him back to them, I'd hate to think there was someone somewhere upset and thinking they won't see him again," she added.