Painted Turtle
Yertle the turtle came wandering across the road. Some nice people stopped, rather than run it over, and put it on the other side of the road, which happend to be our front yard.
I think it was a "painted turtle". It was also, literally, painted, because it had the letters "PBR" painted on it's shell in pink nailpolish. What does that stand for anyway, "Pabst Blue Ribbon"? Stupid people.
Since we didn't think nailpolish remover would be such a good idea for a turtle, we gently chipped it off with our fingernails. My husband, Dave, my best friend, Joanna and I. It seemed pretty calm about the whole procedure.
We then put it into a galvanized washtub with a big rock to crawl on and some lettuce and peas from our garden to eat. We placed it in the sun. It seemed pretty content.
The next day we brought it to a nearby lake and let it go.
Bye Bye, Yertle. Hope you have a nice turtley life.
posted by Kate at 6:55 PM
18 Comments:
Hooray for you and for turtle-rescuers everywhere!
This morning I saw a box turtle that had just successfully crossed the highway. I've been fretting about him all day.
-e
Maybe in this case "PBR" stood as an acronym for "Put Back in River?" I wonder if some idiots had some sort of informal turtle race? That's what they do to mark the different turtles in races is paint the shells, though, uh, nail polish is not normally used. Someone must have gotten a "bright" idea.
Awww. My uncle got me a pet turtle for my birthday one year. I put it down and it disappeared in the ground cover, never to be found again.
I love Yertle!
I used to drive through a pretty rural area that nevertheless got pretty busy with tourist season after Memorial Day. One day I was zipping along a winding road and starting to round a curve when the brake lights of the driver or two directly in front of me went on and I saw that cars headed the opposite way were crawling too.
So was a huge green turtle - crawling directly across the traffic. I don't know if turtles ever try to be in a hurry or if you can tell, but he appeared to be "just being himself." It wasn't a place anybody could pull over - narrow road - but I'm guessing he made it because there was enough traffic that everyone would have had to slow up like I'd had to before getting to him.
Turtles are great. I like the turtle in that 1950s cartoon 'duck & cover'
Amias has been highlighted in LIP (www.livinginpoetry.blogspot.com)
thanks for taking care of the turtle, K. And it was great to see your comment on my blog. Yup, sometimes it's surprising who's a witch, huh? xoxo
I had crossed paths with a turtle once and brought it home for awhile to feed it and give it some human love, but unfortunately, my dog went crazy around it, and I only had the turtle with me for ten minutes before I had to let it go free again since I was afraid of what my dog would do to it.
Maybe one day you'll cross paths with Yertle again. :-)
How nice of you guys! I love to here about people having mercy on the little ones of this world. Thanks, Kate.
I woulda written "BOH" on the back. Rock on', Natty!
That is a very handsome turtle!
Wow! Been quite some time. Hope all is well.
Hmm. I've never met a turtle that made me want to drink before ...
Just found your blog and love it. My brother talks to animals and hears messages from chirping birds. He's a little bit mad, but not at all bad, and I love his birdsong ways.
Just found your blog-lovely stuff. You really should take a look at the purplecoo.co.uk website and think about joining. It is a long story how it came to be, but it is site full of a wide range of peoplefrom writers, famers, crafters and restranteurs etc All people who live mainly in the country, love nature and country living and all sorts of other daft stuff. Some blog, some don't but it is a great community, if not a little barking at times and I think you would get lots of comments on your blogs there. Lots of them would like your stiff too.
hope to see you there
warm wishes
Sorry-will put you a link to make it easier.
http://www.purplecoo.co.uk/
That is where Eden and me both 'live' too.
I spotted her link to you which is what brought me in.
x
It's a great life to be a cute little turtle living in someone's back garden! ;-)
xox Girl and the City (in Paris!)
http://girlandthecity.wordpress.com
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