‘25 years in the slow lane’: Celebrating Roadblock the tortoise

Roadblock sat in the entryway of the store, basking in the early afternoon sun streaming in through the glass door, perking his head up each time a new person walked in through the door.

The 95-pound Sulcata tortoise has been a staple of Rockstar Pets in Tooele for over a decade, and this week, the store and the community will be celebrating his 25th birthday.

Rockstar Pets is a local pet store owned by Sarah and Jed Jones, who bought the establishment in November 2024.

On Wednesday, the owners are holding a birthday party for Roadblock, who has had a hard life and hasn’t always been treated well or cared for in the past.

Roadblock was surrendered to the store around 18 years ago, and he has become an iconic part of the store.

“Then everyone just fell in love with Roadblock,” Sarah said. “He’s just become part of the store and part of the community.”

Jed shared that some people who are frequent customers will go to find Roadblock as soon as they walk into the store, and new customers always have varying reactions to seeing the tortoise moseying around the store — some of them are excited and others are a little scared.

“I would say that the majority of people outside of a zoo have never seen a tortoise that large. So it’s very strange for people,” Sarah said.

Roadblock’s 25th birthday party

This is not the first time Roadblock has had a birthday party. Jed shared that the previous owners threw parties for him in the past — sometimes small ones, but sometimes they were bigger.

“But we figured 25 is a big, a quarter-century milestone,” Jed said when talking about why they decided to throw the party.

“25 years in the slow lane,” Sarah said.

As new owners who don’t live in Tooele, Sarah and Jed shared that they hope the party can help them build trust with the community.

“We’re just trying to get the community to know that we’re here, and trying to establish more of a family-friendly environment,” Sarah said.

The party on Wednesday will take place inside Rockstar Pets, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. MDT. During the party, everything in the store will be 25% off.

There will also be a variety of activities, such as a lettuce toss, a scavenger hunt, coloring pages and face painting.

Rockstar Pets is asking the community to donate to Switchpoint Tooele, the local homeless shelter, in lieu of bringing gifts for Roadblock.

“We know that people love Roadblock, and he doesn’t need anything, he’s a pretty simple guy, and he hasn’t had his best life. So it’d be nice to help other people. We want to get the community involved with helping more,” Sarah said.

Roadblock is well known in the community

Sarah and Jed said they believe having Roadblock in the store makes the place more of a destination.

“There’s a lot of people that have come in, and bring kids in, just to see Roadblock,” Sarah said.

When the previous owner first decided to sell, they told customers that Roadblock was going to stay at the store “because Roadblock belongs to the community,” Sarah added.

The Joneses said that when they first started looking into buying Roadblock, they thought the tortoise made the store more fun and would help bring people in. There were a lot of new things they had to learn when they bought the store, and how to take care of Roadblock was one of those things.

One customer recently came into the store with her young daughter and told Sarah that she remembers coming in and seeing Roadblock when she was young.

Roadblock has his own personality and enjoys being around people, even recognizing and remembering some customers and store employees. Those working at the store shared that they often hear the sound of something falling over and know that Roadblock had once again knocked down a wet floor sign.

“There’s a few store employees that like really get frustrated with him being in the way, and it’s like he knows that, and so he is like a sibling that just purposely torments them,” Sarah said.

The Joneses admitted that they never dreamed of owning a pet store, but Jed had always wanted to be a business owner and Sarah had always liked animals and had wanted to be a veterinarian when she was younger.

Roadblock isn’t the store’s only pet

Roadblock isn’t the only animal that wanders freely around the store — they also have a cat named Lestat, who has also been around since before the Joneses acquired the store.

The Joneses said that Lestat and Roadblock tend to annoy one another, with Sarah describing them as “frenemies.”

Another staple of Rockstar Pets is Beastie, an iguana who once was burned by lamps in her enclosure and still has scarring across her back.

Building Roadblock’s new habitat

Roadblock lives at the store and currently has a large kennel placed at the back of the store.

Jed said that when they first saw the kennel, they thought, “Oh, that’s not a good way to live.”

They are now working on making a new habitat for Roadblock in one of the store’s backrooms. They were hoping to have it done sooner, but in April, Roadblock had to have surgery, so that set them back in their plans for putting together the habitat.

“This back room is going to have plants and lighting and substrate on the floor for him to be able to dig, but he’ll also be able to get out when he wants to, and because he does love to roam the store,” Sarah said.

The store’s owners are also planning on making a new habitat for Beastie the iguana that will be placed near Roadblock’s new home.