...I was rather referencing the somewhat more prosaic excerpt:
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said: "We just fled. I managed to take my nightdress and we've got the tortoise in the washing up bowl in the car."
...no wonder she doesn't want to be named, if she's pinched BBD's tortoise.
I read that as "I managed to take my nightdress off".
Well, I hope she's looking after it. The other one died soon after.
We were staying in a caravan at the time to break the house-buying chain. Six months of hell. A family of five, a bulldog, two tortoises and a chemical toilet. Must have been 1986. If only the dam had collapsed then...