What's going on here? Watching a little lawn tennis? Perhaps enjoying a spot of tea or a picnic in the shade on a fine Tuesday afternoon? Actually the boys (and friend) are turtle watching. One large turtle, about the size of an oblong dinner plate made it's way across the fairway and into our yard. It was on a mission to go somewhere and the children were certainly intrigued. They wanted badly to touch it but I warned them, telling two scary experiences we had with the turtles when Alex was just a baby.
The first. One summer evening A.J. and I spied a giant turtle crossing the fairway toward our house. We went down to see it followed closely by our mighty hunter maine coon cat. Our kitty was beyond curious. Body lowered to the ground, he slowly, stealthily (or so he thought) inched his way to within a foot of the turtle for a good sniff. A.J. and I held our breaths watching. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, that turtle stuck his head out and lunged at our cat. Our poor kitty flipped out, turned around at neck-breaking speed and literally climbed up A.J.'s body jumping off his shoulder and taking off toward the house. When we looked back at the turtle, it had one of our cat's whiskers hanging out it's mouth. Bad turtle!
The second. A Saturday morning over Memorial Day weekend, A.J. headed out to buy some breakfast burritos for us. He was wearing his really nice LL Bean leather mocassins for the quick trip out. Twenty minutes later he returned. I heard the door to the garage open and in he walked (his walk sort of like that of a little kid who has had an accident in his underpants-you know the walk). "What on earth?" I asked. He related how as he was driving out he spotted a turtle in the middle of the road. Being the animal lover that he is, he decided to do the neighborly thing and help the turtle to the grass so it didn't get flattened by a car. Apparently the turtle did not appreciate his help and after A.J. carefully picked it up (face out) by the edge of the shell, that turtle emptied itself all over A.J.'s feet. Ungrateful turtle!
So for my 12 years living in Texas I have learned that turtles are a menace. They're cute in a non-cuddly sort of way but you don't want to mess with them! :)
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