Yertle, the Turtle

We almost added another member to our family this weekend. On Saturday, while Kamrynn and I were in town at dance class and running errands, I called Tyler to check-in, and was greeted by a very excited Madi.


Madi: Mommy, I found a turtle!
Me: A what?!? Where?!?
Madi: A turtle! In the garage, under the tarp! We're keeping it until you get home.
Me: Huh? Okay, cool. Can I talk to your dad?
Madi: Okay.

So I told Kami about our new "pet", and she was very excited. And let me tell you... this ended up being GREAT bribery. As she was in rare form Saturday morning, and did NOT want to run errands after dance. All I had to do was mention the turtle back at home, and how we had to hurry before Daddy let it go, and we were back in business!

Upon arriving home, I see a big plastic tote on our walkway. And "playing" in the tote (more like trying to escape), was the turtle whom I will call Yertle (I can't remember what the kids named it). Apparently Tyler got online, did some research and discovered a few things:

1) Yertle was more than likely a female.
2) Yertle was a box turtle.
3) Box turtles do NOT make good pets. (Can we say... SALMONELLA?!?!)
4) Box turtles are a "threatened" species.
5) Turtles need to be released very near to where they were found, otherwise they might not survive. I guess this is a big mistake people make... trying to "help" them by taking the turtles someplace us humans deem "more worthy".

So after a few hours, and much hand washing, we released Yertle in the little (dried up) ditch/creek-bed on the side of our house.
It was fun while it lasted, and provided a few hours of entertainment, on an otherwise lazy Saturday!