Temporary Pet

The other day when Erik was coming home from work, he found a turtle in the middle of the road. There's a large pond not far from our house so this is a common occurrence. We usually stop and move the turtle to the side of the road so that it doesn't get squished and then go on our way. However, on this particular day, Erik thought it would be a great idea to bring the turtle home for J. J was very excited and didn't want to leave the turtle alone. We found a small box to put it in, got it a plastic bowl for some water, and then J feed it some lettuce leaves. We let her keep the turtle until the following morning, then we set him free. Since there is an open drainage ditch behind our house Erik thought we could just put the turtle in the grass and he'd find his way to ditch and thus find water. So Erik and J took the turtle just outside our fence so the dogs couldn't get him and then let him go. Later that day we went out to see if he was still there but couldn't find him so we figured he'd moved on. The following day, Erik was out mowing the lawn and came upon our poor turtle still sitting in the grass. The grass was just tall enough to cover him and that's why we hadn't seen him the previous afternoon. When Erik got done mowing the lawn, we loaded up J and the turtle into the stroller and headed off to the pond where J put him back. Now, every time we drive by the pond she asks if we can see her turtle and wants to stop and look for him.