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Thank goodness for helpful -- and vigilant -- friends and neighbors willing to keep an eye out for runaway red-footed tortoise Sammy last month.
After giving his owner, Ray Swick, the slip during a walk at Civitan Park in Belpre, Sammy was tracked down with the help of Charlotte Modesitt, who put up flyers; Susie Ashley, who posted Sammy's plight on social media; and Jenny Maze and her daughter Kenisyn, who finally spotted Sammy crossing Blennerhassett Avenue at the Civitan Club.
And thank goodness Kenisyn was willing to pick up the tortoise, put it in her lap and check social media posts to determine whether they had found Sammy.
"This is a story that demonstrates how a community using technology can help each other out," Swick said.
As Swick pointed out, without the shared photos of Sammy, he might have been found, but no one would have been able to determine his owner.
"Then he would have disappeared into private ownership," Swick said.
But that didn't happen.
This is also a story of a community WILLING to use technology to help one another, rather than the way we see it being used too often these days. It's a reminder there are uses for the platform that set the bar much higher than the misinformation and vitriol we see shared -- more frequently, it seems, than stories such as Sammy's.
Well done, to those who figured out how to spread the message and track down a traipsing tortoise.
And welcome back home, Sammy!