I drove around the corner onto a side
street with little traffic. A dinner-plate-size, yellow-bellied turtle was in my lane trying to
cross the road. I stopped the car. Bill, who has a bad back, achy knees, and
uses a cane, said, "You are going to cause a wreck over a turtle." Then
he slid out of the passenger seat, bent down, and plopped that big guy in tall
grass far from the road.
Bill is no teenager. He's no mutant. He's
no Ninja, (like that kid's show with a team of do gooders,) The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but my honey is MY HERO!
When I was a child, baby turtles the
size of quarters or half-dollar coins, could be purchased as pets from dime
stores. Sales were discontuinued when it was discovered they carried samonella.
When my son was about eight, he rescued a box turtle from the country. He named it Speedy, because that critter could make it to the back gate in a flash. A few weeks later we returned it to the original spot where it was found.
It is advised that you not relocate
turtles to new areas, even if you think their current location is odd (unless
it is obviously hazardous, such as a busy parking lot). Moving them to an unfamiliar location can subject them
to foreign diseases and parasites that they lack a natural immunity to, so that should be avoided.
Did you know a group of turtles is called a bale or
a dole. Ever seen a group piled on a log?
6 comments:
Hi Linda. That was a sweet story. Bill really IS your hero and he's the hero of that turtle he rescued who would probably have ended up being a pancake instead of a turtle! I cannot tell you how happy for you I am that you got your blog back. Geeze. Was it really missing for three years? Holy smokes. I hope you have a good day today, a good weekend, and I hope that turtle feels lucky to be alive. Hugs. Susan
I dodge turtles several times a week, but I don't have a hero with me to move them out of harm's way. They seem quite active (for turtles) over the past couple weeks.
We saw a dinner-plate sized snapping turtle on the school parking lot many years ago. Just sitting there, inside its shell. I wondered aloud if it was okay, and was reaching out a foot to poke it, when that turtle's head shot out with a quickness! He bit into the side of my leather shoe! I'm pretty sure I screamed. We did not offer any further help for that "poor" turtle. The ridges along his shell should have warned me that he was a snapper, but I was more concerned about his well-being.
That's a cute turtle story, and great of your husband to rescue it from the road. And even more special since he's got a bad back and knees. I don't see turtles up here in the mountains. It's just the deer, and lots of squirrels haha. I wish you a wonderful month of June!
Gppd night. I'd have wet myself!
Bill is a tenderheart. No cats! he said as Sassy Boy vlimbed up ontio his lap in the back yard nine years ago.
Thank you very much and the same to you. My daughter leaves rurally and feeds the deer that come to her bird feeder. OH dear!
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