Today, I saw my 3rd turtle- and first turtle up close. The little guy was halfway across our baking hot driveway when my Dad spotted him from the window. Since I have a friend coming over later today (hopefully), I automatically went out on the driveway to check the turtle out. It turned out to be a painter turtle, probably of about 3-4 years of age if I had to guess. It seemed very confused when I attempted to pick it up, and tried to claw itself away from me. Oh well- it's wild anyway.
The turtle then proceeded to LITERALLY SCUTTLE itself under my grandmother's car. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem- and it was very understandable, since the concrete underneath my grandma's car was far cooler than the hot surface that had been cooking in the sun. The only problem with this was the fact that my grandma was JUST leaving to go to the grocery store before my friend arrived- leaving me a grand total of 3 minutes to find a way to get the turtle out from under the car. My first method was to tickle its backside until it crawled out to escape. Instead of doing what I wanted, however, the turtle chose to take refuge behind the left back tire of the car, pushing itself against it so we couldn't successfully pick him up. On to the next method! I took a long branch from a tree in the yard and tried poking the turtle to get it to move. This seemed to work... for a short while. It only worked until the turtle reached the tire on the opposite side of the car... then he proceeded to do the same thing he had done last time. This was getting nowhere, and now my grandma was outside telling me to get the turtle out NOW so she could go to the store. Finally, I took a broom and was able to shove the turtle out just far enough where I could pick him up. While he put up quite a fight, I got him up, out of the way of the car and out into the yard near the wild strawberries that he had presumably been trying to get to (since that's what turtles enjoy eating). Now, he's happy, safe, and hopefully digging a burrow for himself near the edge of the woods. So that's how my day is going... how's yours? Maddie
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