Turtle Time

After it warmed up here the turtles of Missouri were up and running. You cant drive a mile without seeing a turtle on the road. If I was able I'd pull over and set them back into the grass and head them off away from the road.Many times though it was impossible to pull over and I knew it wasnt going to end well. If you've ever seen a squished turtle its not a pretty site.

My grandkids are turtle crazy here.We have plastic turtles, cement turtles, stuffed turtles , turtle garden ornaments, turtle nightlights( that ones in my room)and even my daughter Mollys nickname is Turtle. That being said I thought it would be cool to bring home a wandering turtle for the kids to check out. So the next one I saw on the road I brought home.

We gave it a nice house in a large tote and fed it watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes and crickets.The kids thought they would help me out and feed Molly some leaves, so they stripped my wisteria vine and fed the leaves to the turtle. I named it Molly after my daughter the one thats nicknamed Turtle ( get it???) I thought it was funny. This was before I went online and found out its a male three-toed box turtle.Then it really was funny.

My parents came to visit and were telling me about my great aunt Lorraine living in a nursing home and wanting to go home. She hates it there and doesnt understand why she is there. I woke up the next morning and realized the turtle was no different than my Aunt...not understanding why it was in a box and just wanting to go home. So Morgan and I took Molly turtle to Shaw Nature Preserve by our house and set Molly turtle free.

I learned a powerful lesson about taking creatures from the wild even though I had justified it to myself by thinking the turtle was better off with us rather than being roadkill. Its better to live a short but happy life rather than longevity spent in misery.