First Turtle Crossing

On our way to church this morning, we got behind a very slow driver. Now listen, on these curvy county roads, I surely am not a fast driver, especially at night. And during the warm months, I am ever on the lookout for critters who get a bit too close to the road. But this woman in the car ahead of us was a creeper. I remarked to my husband that at least if she is driving that slowly she'll be able to stop without a problem in case there's a turtle in her path. I was, of course, assuming she'd be the kind of person that would care that there was a turtle in the road. No sooner had I said that and guess what we saw? Oh yes, a turtle. It was not yet in the road, but it had its long neck out, checking out the traffic, perhaps, and heading straight for the pavement. So my husband pulled over just beyond the site, and I hopped out and headed to do our first turtle rescue of the season.

Normally when you approach a box turtle, it will go into survival mode and stick its head and its feet up inside its shell, trying not to be seen, making like a rock. But not this turtle! This guy actually ran from me! It kept its neck out, its head held high, and those feet made tracks! John could even see it from the car. But I scooped it up, carried it to the other side of the road, well past the pavement, and smiled as I watched it hurry down into the brush and the woods.

Yay! John is keeping a turtle migration chart this year, and we can only hope that each turtle makes it safely across these roads. Of course, we'll help as much as possible. And while many folks definitely feel the opposite of me, I'll just go ahead and say that I have the same good wishes for the snakes too!