July 21, 2006
Turtle Trouble
On Sunday evening, Doug and I were in the garden. He was weeding. I was taking pictures of all the fruits of our his labor. I had just snapped a picture of our tomato plants when Doug started laughing.
“Holy Crap!” he said through his laughter. “Murphy! How did you get over there?”
I turned around to see our dog, Murphy, on the other side of our fence. He was gallivanting in the neighbor’s yard. I called his name and he came right up to the fence and laid on the grass, taunting me to come over and get him. He knows how to play the “chase me all over the neighborhood” game very well.
While Doug went around to capture our rebellious canine, I proceeded to walk the fence line to see if Murphy had dug any holes under the fence to escape. It’s just a cheap little fence to keep the dog and Dawson away from the road behind our house. As I was perusing the fence line, I shrieked! There in the grass, running the fence line, was a turtle. A TURTLE!
“Doug! Come here!” I yelled.
“What? Did you find a hole in the fence?”
“Ummm. No….but I did find THAT!” I pointed.
“It’s just a turtle. Are you really this girly? Here, hold him!” he said. He picked up the slimy looking thing and proceeded to hand him to me. I freaked out and said there was no way I was holding that turtle. He taunted me by dangling the little thing in my face.
“Chicken!” he said. “I wonder where he came from.”
“I’m not getting my finger bitten off. No thank you. He probably wandered over from the river.”
Little Plover River was a 1/4 mile away from our house. We always walk the path to the park and we figure our little pal walked a long way to get into our backyard. But we have no clue how he got into the fence!
“Awww. C’mon. He won’t bite.”
I declined again and Dawson toddled over to see what we were talking about. He immediately clang to my leg when he saw his daddy put “Terry the Turtle” on the ground. The little amphibian sure moved fast. Suddenly, Murphy caught wind of Terry and decided to poke and prod at the poor thing.
“Doug, we need to get him back to the river.”
After playing with Terry and giving him a dip in our rain barrel, we grabbed an old pail and put Terry in it. I called it the Turtle Taxi. We packed Dawson in his stroller and attached Murphy to his leash and the four of us went to release Terry in his natural habitat. Such good little environmentalists we are. We found a low clearing by the river and let Terry into the water.
“Buh-bye, turd!” Dawson said, his little fist opening and closing into a wave. “Buh-bye.”
When we got home, Dawson seemed a little sad.
“What’s the matter, bug?”
“No mo turd, Mumma.”
“Oh!” I laughed. “Yes, no more turtle. He went home.”
Posted by Dana @ 9:51 PM • Nature & Environment
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July 21st, 2006 at 11:24 PM, mommaobrienx7 Says:
cute story! i too, would not have touched that turtle!
July 22nd, 2006 at 10:42 AM, Guinevere Says:
Oh how cute! I wouldn’t have touched it either, but I would’ve made sure it got back to the river too.
)
You’re such a good environmentalist. ;o)
July 22nd, 2006 at 1:28 PM, kate5kiwis Says:
*turtle taxi*
lovd it.
i think i might be able to hold a turtle, it’s a bit snakey tho..
July 22nd, 2006 at 6:12 PM, zingtrial Says:
Hi was reading through your blog and liked it,Its a nice story thanks for sharing
zt
http://zingtrial.blogsome.com/
July 23rd, 2006 at 12:33 AM, Elizabeth Says:
What a cute story! I was the proud owner of two itty bitty turtles when I was stationed in Korea. I wonder what happened to those guys. Mario and Andretti. They were fast little swimmers.
July 23rd, 2006 at 9:54 AM, Dana Says:
I’m such a girly girl. Afraid of a little turtle, right? =) Dawson still asks where the “turd” is. I just die laughing every time!
July 24th, 2006 at 5:55 PM, Christina Says:
Awww…good for you for rescuing the turtle!
I don’t mind turtles, but snakes, spiders and bugs can stay as far away as possible.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:26 AM, clair Says:
Sweet, Dana. Though I wouldn’t hold a turtle either. Once when Steev, my teen, was very young, we got him a pet terrapin. Kept it in our yard and one day, he just vanished. I guess we’ll never know what happened to him but Steev figures he must’ve escaped from his little ‘house’ in the night, got on the road and got run over. Poor thing! Sob! We haven’t had another pet since.