We aren't sure where he wandered over from, we are a few blocks away from two different ponds. But we knew we had to get him back to a pond so he'd be safe. Mr. Incredible's first thought was to try to pick him up from behind, but when I Googled snapping turtles, Wikipedia strongly recommended against that. There was a suggestion to use a snow shovel to scoop him up, so that's what Mr. Incredible did. We put a blanket down in a recycle toter and put Mr. Snapper in that. Then we put the toter in the wagon to haul him back to water.
Here are a couple of views of him in the toter:
Of course, first we called Red's family. Red, Little Red, and their mom all came over to see the turtle and walk with us down to the pond. On the way Mr. Snapper stuck his front claw and head out to see where we were taking him. We think he'd been lost for a few days because he wasn't snapping or struggling, like he was very tired and dehydrated. We found a path down to the water and when Mr. Incredible tipped up the toter, Mr. Snapper happily crawled into the water and disappeared.
Here is his new home:
On the way we saw a much smaller turtle that had been crushed by a car. We were glad we found Mr. Snapper when we did (and not by accident when pulling weeds from under the peony!). He very likely would have met a similar fate.
In other quick news, we got the eggplants planted. I went back a couple of hours later and one had already been eaten! Chomped off at the stem. We think the rabbits were in cahoots with the turtle. Psst, Mister, go distract them in the front while we eat the garden in the back.
Never a dull moment at the Incredible Household.
4 comments:
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
That was so nice of you to make sure Mr. Turtle got back to the pond safe! Great pictures too : )
He looks like quite the character!
The Incredibles saved a life today!
News at 11.
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