Turt Rescue

I had an interesting experience this morning.  I backed out of my driveway and started down the road, and about 4 houses down, I saw something in the road.  It was brown and oval and sort of looked like a hat laying in the middle of the road.  I noticed other cars going around it.  Then it moved, and I realized it was a turtle - a very large turtle - bigger than a dinner plate!

It was walking across the road and would periodically stop.  I was afraid it was going to get hit, and I wanted to rescue it, so I pulled over and got out.  Other cars had stopped as well.  (This was about 10:40 am, and there really wasn't much traffic.)

I had just read recently that if you are going to rescue a turtle in the road you need to take it to the side it was headed toward, which makes sense, so I tried to pick it up.  Immediately it jumped and started thrashing its head and legs, and the HUGE tail that looked like an alligator tail!  I quickly put it down - not because I was afraid of it biting me, but because I was afraid it would move so violently that I would drop it and it would get injured.

Next, I tried pushing it from behind with my foot to get it started walking again, but that didn't work - it just jumped again.  One more time, I tried picking it up, and again, it thrashed violently from side to side, so again I put it down.

At this point, there were at least 4 cars with people watching, and a little boy was telling me to put water on it.  I called out to the assembled group, "Anyone have any ideas?"  No one said anything.

Then a blue VW Beetle pulled over and a young woman got out with a blanket.  She folded the blanket in half and laid it over the turtle, then picked it up.  To my surprise, it didn't thrash around this time.  She carried it to the side of the road and set it down in the grass.

I thanked her and several other people yelled, "Thank you!" and then we all went about our business.  I have no idea where it came from or where it was headed.  There is a creek behind my house, but that would have been a very long walk with fences in the way, and it would have had to navigate a curb unless it walked down someone's driveway.  There is a pond on the side of the road he was headed to, but it is quite a ways down the road and behind houses, so he had quite a walk if that is where he was headed.

I hope he is ok.  He looked old and experienced, so he is a survivor.  I have never touched a big turtle like that before (I assume it was a snapping turtle?).

Life is just one adventure after another!

:)Amy