Turtles All the Way Down

Southeast 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.

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