Turtles

This morning, while snoozning in my bed, I was awoken by the screams of twin nine year olds, boy and girl. Naturally, something had gotten my brother and sister excited. But what? It must of been major if it had got them screaming this early, around 8:30. I tried to go back to sleep, hoping they would just quiet down. No good. I now hear the footsteps coming upstairs...or I should say foot-stomps...since that's all they do, stomp their feet. Then I hear them enter my room. I now give up, knowing it was useless to try to get back to sleep. And before you knew, they were screaming in my ear. I couldn't make out what they were saying. Soon, they calmed down and told me what was going on.

Apparently, they found a turtle in the backyard...

Ah, the memories. I told them okay, only to remember a simpler time, a period of my life when things were different. There was no twin brother and sister. There was no yellow tabby cat sleeping on my chair. There were no gray hairs on my dad. There was me, much younger and smaller than I am now. And there was the same backyard, except with more trees and a treefort. And there was also a siamese cat lurking around, looking for something to do. Obviously, Jingles was bored. And there also was a turtle, but a different one. I too was very excited. And I too put him in a box. Though I wish somebody had told me a shoebox was not very good for keeping things in. In a matter of ten minutes, I had already named him, told my mom, started getting him food and water, and started to warn my cat not to eat him or else no dinner. You would not believe how happy I was that day. I thought that turtle was one of the coolest things in my life at the time. As the day went on, I soon became less and less excited over a turtle. It didn't do anything except crawl and it would hide in it's shell if you tried to touch him. After a little longer, it was dinner time. So I went in to go eat and tell my dad about "Cruncher". After dinner, I decided to take a bath, not knowing I would soon lose my new friend. When I came out, I saw that somebody had tampered with the box. And when I say tampered, I mean somebody taking the whole freaking turtle out! Imediately, I start to pout. I asked my dad what happened and he said he let him go. I did not understand why either. Looking back, I now know it was kind of stupid to be so angry at my dad for saving an animal's life. I did not realize I was hurting the turtle by keeping him in a shoebox were he should be in the woods where there is water and food. I forgave him like ten minutes later anyway.

Anyway, cut to today...

I go outside to go do some yardwork. After a while, I decide to go in the back yard and look for my brother. There, I see a big box in the middle of the ground. I look inside and I see that there is a medium sized turtle and a bunch of cut-up leaves and carrots. I pick him up just to see what he looked like. Apparently, the little guy was missing a foot. Eh, poor guy. I was tempted to release him, just like my dad had done years before. But I stopped, thought about what the twins would do if I did, and carefully put him back in the box.

As the day went on, I became more and more worried about the turtle. He was outside in the heat without water. Apparently the twins didn't even think about cooling him down with water...ever though it was excruciatingly hot outside. After spraying him with some water, I saw he was getting spooked about anything that moved. The box must of been getting to him. I decided I had to let him go. But before I could, I decided to tell the twins so they wouldn't be surprised to see an empty box filled with carrots, leaves, and pee. I rush outside for some reason and pick the little guy up. His feet are flailing around and I almost dropped him do to all the constant wiggling. I safely lower the guy to the ground and he quickly runs...well not run...more of a slow powerjog...away. We got a picture before he got too far away, just so we would have something to talk about later on.

Chances are, we will probally never see the three-foot turtle again. He will either make it to the ocean or get pecked to death by some bird. Let's hope it's not the latter of the two.