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Turtles All the Way Down
May. 15th, 2018 08:26 pmSoutheast Michigan has snapping turtles. Big ones. The size of a bike tire. My house is near a big, muddy pond, and we absolutely don't go wading in it. Why? Today, I found this stumping through my back yard:
It's a tank with a temper and a beak.
It was crawling with determination away from the pond and deeper into the subdivision. Any number of my neighbors freak out at the sight of animals (any time someone sights a coyote, they sound the alarm on the community bulletin board), so this one probably wouldn't survive long away from home.
I put on some leather gloves, got a big bucket, and went out to retrieve it. I stayed safely behind it and set the bucket down in front of it so it could crawl in, if it had a mind. Ho ho ho! The turtle snapped at the plastic several times with lightning speed. From the rear, I flipped it into the bucket with my gloves on. Oh, it was upset! It struck at the bucket several times. But it couldn't do anything.
Then I simply hauled it to the swamp and tipped it out. It came out upside-down, so I used the bucket to nudge it upright again. No way was I going to grab it, even with gloves! It sat on the shore of the pond, glaring at me. What, no thank you? I left it there, and when I went back to check an few minutes later, it was gone.
My good deed for the day.
It's a tank with a temper and a beak.
It was crawling with determination away from the pond and deeper into the subdivision. Any number of my neighbors freak out at the sight of animals (any time someone sights a coyote, they sound the alarm on the community bulletin board), so this one probably wouldn't survive long away from home.
I put on some leather gloves, got a big bucket, and went out to retrieve it. I stayed safely behind it and set the bucket down in front of it so it could crawl in, if it had a mind. Ho ho ho! The turtle snapped at the plastic several times with lightning speed. From the rear, I flipped it into the bucket with my gloves on. Oh, it was upset! It struck at the bucket several times. But it couldn't do anything.
Then I simply hauled it to the swamp and tipped it out. It came out upside-down, so I used the bucket to nudge it upright again. No way was I going to grab it, even with gloves! It sat on the shore of the pond, glaring at me. What, no thank you? I left it there, and when I went back to check an few minutes later, it was gone.
My good deed for the day.
