A Backyard Visitor

This morning I noticed we had a new visitor in the back yard. 

This guy was as big and as heavy as the cats!  He posed nicely for me to take pics and didn't even blink or move.  But the moment I put my hands on his shell, he raised himself four inches off the ground and spun a 180 to try and bite me.  He even hissed!

 
I gave it a second attempt of trying to grab his shell gently in the middle on each side, but I learned his legs and toes were long.  Long enough to push away my fingers.  I was worried he was going to turn into Kung Fu Turtle and pull some jujitsu on me.  I kept watch on him throughout the day and he shuffled around the backyard.  I think he probably fell off the retaining wall in our backyard and landed with a surprise to be face-to-face with our cats and dogs.  Look at those spikes on his tail!

Owen rides the bus home on Wednesdays for his weekly tennis lesson.  Since Todd was away on business, I walked down to the bus stop to pick him up and enlist the help of two of the stay-at-home dads.  Steve was much more successful with the shovel and getting the turtle into the wheelbarrow.

And off we went on an adventure to the nature trail at the bottom of our street with the turtle in the wheelbarrow.

Steve took the wheelbarrow down the steps while Bruce stood behind to supervise.

The kids gathered around and said their goodbyes to the turtle.  They each had their own name for him.  Owen called him Cliff because he is still missing the bullfrog from our backyard.  Another called him Twist.  That made me smile because Twist is a little nickname we have used for our kids ever since they were old enough to cause trouble.

There he is safely down by the creek.  He should be much happier now that he is away from nosy cats and little horses.

As we walked home, the kids discussed the fact that by saving this turtle we were helping the environment....major Earth Day topics and Reduce/Reuse/Recycle songs being pounded into their heads at school.  And then there was concern that this turtle might be missing his Mom or Dad.