The tortoise didn’t like
having a bright light shining in his face.
He didn’t need lights.
Tortoises have night vision.
Which is why he built his burrow
inside this deep, sandy hole,
where people could never find him.
At least that’s what he thought,
until these firefighters showed up.
“He’s big.”
“He’s huge.”
The tortoise was so confused,
and a tiny bit scared,
because the firefighters weren’t just shining a light.
They were trying to come inside!
It was like they were searching for something...
and, well, they were.
Because these firefighters were on a rescue mission.
But they weren’t here to save the tortoise.
“OK. We’re going to a report of a”
“bunch of puppies stuck in a tortoise den.”
They were looking for some lost puppies!
Somewhere in this hole was a pair of trapped dogs.
The rescuers couldn’t hear or see the dogs,
which meant they must be deep underground.
The firefighters’ first idea had been
to dig the puppies out,
but that could cause the tunnel to collapse.
Which meant, in order to save the pups,
someone had to go in there and find them.
But that’s when they ran into a problem,
a tortoise problem.
The tortoise who lived here was blocking the entrance,
and he did not wanna move.
They couldn’t pull him out, and they couldn’t talk him out.
So the rescuers had to make the tortoise want to move.
But how?
Luckily, one of them had an idea.
They put a big hunk of sweet, juicy watermelon on a stick...
“Shove through that watermelon.”
and stuck it in the hole.
“Here you go, buddy.”
Hopefully the tortoise was hungry enough to go for it.
“Come on, man.”
“Come on, buddy.”
At first, they weren’t sure,
“Yeah, he’s looking right at me.”
but then...
“OK, he’s coming towards me.”
(gasping) It was working!
The watermelon was working!
The tortoise was still confused,
but he couldn’t resist the smell of that fruit.
“OK, pull me.”
(grunting) “OK, stop.”
Little by little,
the tortoise began to crawl towards the opening.
“Come on, buddy.”
“Yeah, he’s right here. I’m bringing it in.”
“OK, pull me out more.”
“OK, stop.”
Almost there.
Just a little bit farther.
“Come on, buddy.”
“You’re almost out. Come on, buddy.”
But just a few feet from the exit...
“Come on, buddy.”
the tortoise froze.
There were too many people outside,
and he was afraid to come out.
“He’s just staring at me right now.”
Operation Watermelon had failed.
What now?
The puppies’ mom tried calling out to them,
“Come on, Poe! Come on, Finn! You can do it!”
but they still couldn’t hear the dogs,
and it was getting darker.
There was only one thing left to do,
the thing they had hoped to avoid:
dig.
Because digging could cause the sandy tunnel to collapse,
and they didn’t want to accidentally hurt the puppies
or the tortoise.
So instead of digging up the entire burrow,
they dug up just enough
to gently move
the big reptile
out of the way,
and pulled out the puppies!
(whistling) “Hi, puppies! Hi.”
“The other one too.”
“Here we go. Here you go, buddy.”
The dogs were so happy to be out of the hole
and back with their mom, where they belonged.
Thanks to these brave rescuers,
everyone was going home safe and sound.
Including the tortoise, who was like,
“What?!”
“There were two dogs in there this whole time?!”