Ellen’s Blog

So….last night our young German Wire-Haired Pointer met up with his first turtle.  He was both excited and perplexed. He seemed to be debating his options: Would this be something good to eat?  Fun to play with? Dangerous in the extreme?  The possibilities had him delirious with joy.

The turtle had other worries.  It was a hot day and she had just trekked a fair distance from the slew she called home.  Her journey had brought her through a huge field, knee-high with weeds, to our newly shorn and vibrantly green lawn.  A generous divet, a/k/a “the nest”  had been prepared and, as Jaeger and I watched (both in wonder), she twitched her tail to one side, positioned herself off-set of the nest, and dropped her first egg.  Dog and I both registered our amazement.  She then used her back feet to shove the egg as deeply in the hole as possible.  A minute later…a second egg and more careful arrangement her nest.  These were fairly good-sized eggs.  Six more followed.  Finally, her hind feet clawing the soft clay with a backward motion, she buried her future progeny. 

Turtles (I read on-line), take 60-120 days to hatch, depending on the temperatures.  Sixty to 120 days needed to survive the skunk that frequents our yard, the aforementioned GWP, his co-hort, the mellow Yellow Labrador, and the lawnmower.  It seemed to me that the chances were not in the future turtles’ favor. 

Just a few short hours later and “Mom” turtle is gone.  The slew has called.  At first, I feel sorry for her.  Talk about a thankless mothering experience!  And then, it occurs to me.  How lucky she is!  For her, there is no awareness of marauding skunks, over-curious canines or rotating blades of mechanical doom.  She lives a worry-free, finite motherhood, while I struggle on year after year, concerned even yet about my now-adult offspring and their journeys through a world replete with skunks, and dogs (the dirty dog kind) and, well, you get the idea….

So…what with all the flooding in the midwest and fact that it is June and turtles are busy about the business of laying their eggs, I have seen an increase in the number of turtles who are making slow, but determined progress crossing rural streets and busy highways.  These turtle moms have left their watery homes for the sole purpose of laying their eggs in the soil-carved nests nature demands they construct.  As you see them on the road or highway, they are either going to or coming from this maternal duty that natural instinct has foisted upon them.

I like to help them. Rural streets are easy.  Small turtles are easy. Over the years, I have become prepared.  I keep my “turtle” gloves in the trunk.  These are really just the buck-a-pair “knitties” that you buy at WalMart.  (The ones you buy after you’ve lost every good pair of gloves and you realize that you won’t get through the relentless Wisconsin winter without some protection.) The “knitties” are an obvious choice for turtle gloves as several mis-matched pairs are always floating loose in the trunk.  My other essential tool is a portion of a cane fishing pole…handy for directional urging. 

When I say rural streets are easy, I mean because the traffic (especially the lack of it) cooperates.   Obviously, small turtles are easy because they are so portable.  Occasionally, you will come across a particularly recalcitrant one who insists on going the wrong way back into the street and danger, and you must transport them a considerable way off the road to ensure their safety.  (more…)