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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ne 28 ,2 01 8 | 10 oakville.ca Now an evening event! Family activities and food trucks open at 6 p.m. with fireworks at 10 p.m. (weather permitting). Bring a blanket or lawn chair and get to the park early for the best view of the fireworks. Avoid traffic by taking the Oakville Transit shuttle from Bronte GO station to Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park. Visit oakville.ca for event details. Sponsored by LEXUS F AKVILLE Celebrate Canada Day! Bronte Heritage Waterfront ParkSunday, July 1, 6-10 p.m. Joint Compliance Audit Committee Members needed The City of Burlington, the Town of Halton Hills, the Town of Oakville and Halton Region are currently seeking experienced professionals for appointment to the 2018-2022 Joint Compliance Audit Committee. This committee is required by the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, to consider applications requestingAct, 1996, to consider applications requestingAct financial audits of candidate campaigns and third party advertisers in the 2018 Municipal Election. The committee may be required to appoint auditors and determine if legal proceedings are required as a result of the auditors' report. Further information on the committee, including qualifications and the application form, is available on Halton Region's website at halton.ca, or at the Office of the Regional Clerk, 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Questions may be directed to regionalclerk@halton.ca or by dialing 311. Vicki Tytaneck, Town Clerk down the road from where we live," she said. Mid-afternoon and at work, Green said she be- came hysterical and imme- diately drove home from Mississauga where she works for an electrical con- tractor in project manage- ment. "I tried not to get my hopes up too high as I drove to the humane society," she said, adding the drive was a bit of a blur. When she arrived, she was taken to a room where the tortoise had been placed in a small aquari- um. "I didn't wait for help to pull this tortoise out from hiding under a stack of newspaper," she said. Upon first inspection, she didn't think it was Mar- tin - he was bigger and had white marks on its shell and he was a dark orange colour. "My heart sank, but I be- gan to examine him and re- alized the white marks were scars from something trying to make a meal of him," she said. One of Martin's shell sections had a small birth defect, and as she looked him over, she saw that first old scar in his shell and she burst into tears, realizing this was indeed Martin. "I vividly remembered certain markings that only my little Martin had," she said. "After 11 months of some sort of adventure that only Martin will ever know, his journey brought him home," she said. "If only he could talk!" After she got home, she phoned her husband to tell him the wonderful news, but couldn't get the words out, she was crying so hard. All she managed to get out was "can you come home? "He left work, thinking something terrible had happened," she said, ex- plaining that Martin was extra special because it was the first pet she and her husband had gotten togeth- er. Green said she had a phone call from a gentle- man, four days after her re- union with Martin. He was the man who had dropped Martin at the humane soci- ety. He told her he found Martin while he was gar- dening in his backyard - the same scenario when the in- quisitive tortoise had dis- appeared in July 2017. The man's son had wanted to keep the tortoise, but when he took Martin to the hu- mane society for advice on feeding and care, they im- mediately seized him. He shared the story with friends at a neighbourhood bar, and Green said that's when folks told him the sto- ry of Martin. The man then phoned Green, whose num- ber was listed on the flyers that had been distributed during their lengthy search. The Oakville Bea- ver had also written a story about the missing tortoise. Martin now has a little sister, Martha, and our dog Scotch could not be happier that he is home as well, bouncing back and forth in delight when they were re- united. Green said she had scoured Kijiji every day for months following Martin's disappearance, searching for someone, who maybe wanted to sell him. That's how Martha came to be - she was for sale on the pop- ular website, and Green - in the back of her mind - fig- ured that Martin wouldn't survive a harsh Canadian winter. Green said she and her spouse had searched the neighbourhood for months. Initial reports when he first went missing stated that a man had been seen scooping him up from the lawn of his Bridge Road home, and apparently headed to the lake to re- lease him. Unfortunately, Martin can't swim, since he's a desert tortoise. She theorizes that Mar- tin managed to stay warm this past winter, perhaps under someone's deck, close to a heating source, where he would have hi- bernated until the warmth of spring hit. She said her husband believes differently, think- ing someone had taken him in and then later Martin es- caped, or was set free. Whatever the case, Green said her newly- fenced yard, and GPS tracking device will pre- vent him from going miss- ing again, and she's just thrilled that Martin is back home, ready for another season of gardening. NEWS Upon first inspection, she didn't think found tortoise was Martin Rachelle Green and Daniel Kneblewski were reunited with their pet tortoise Martin after almost 11 months on the loose. Rachelle Green photo lContinued from page 3