"Friends call me Speed."

So Kyle found a turtle in our driveway today as he was leaving for work.  He called me out and we debated what to do with him.  Neither of us have ever had any experience in turtle-rescuing before.  I decided to Google it and promised to text Kyle at work once I had any information about what to do.  

So Kyle left and I went inside and immediately Googled "what to do when you find a turtle in your driveway" (I couldn't think of anything better to search).  Surprisingly, I got a lot of helpful sites to look through.  I learned that the turtle we found was most likely a box turtle.  Here's what he looked like:

The website informed me that it was completely normal for box turtles (who are in fact terrestrial) to make appearances in driveways and flower beds during the summer, especially after it rains.  So that explained why he was here.  Now what?  The website further counseled not to move the turtles unless they are in danger of being stepped on or run over.  Our turtle was in our driveway, but Kyle was easily able to drive around him.  I knew he wasn't going to go into the street because he wasn't pointing in that direction.  I checked a few other sites and again was warned not to move the turtle unless absolutely necessary.  This was for two reasons:


(a) the turtle knows where its going and is capable of getting there.  If I were to pick it up, I might make him confused or disoriented and actually prevent him from getting to his destination.  Even worse, if I decided to keep it, any eggs or babies it might have (if it was a girl) would die and it would keep the turtles from reproducing.


(b) turtles, like any other animal, could carry diseases.  More importantly, however, the turtle could get something from me and carry it back to his turtle friends and kill them all.  Supposedly this isn't uncommon at all.

So I decided not to move the turtle but to keep an eye on it instead.  I wondered if he was really a she and looked into how to tell the difference between males and females.  I went to go outside to check and take a picture for the blog, but the turtle was gone (which is why I had to post a picture from online)!  He really was terrestrial!  Now I know why when my Grandpa's in a hurry he says he's "off like a herd of turtles."  They're not really too slow at all!

This reminded me of a movie Kyle and I watched last night called Swan Princess.  I won't go into detail about it here (or at least not this post), but it reminded me of the turtle character from the movie.  I couldn't find the clip of him I wanted from YouTube, but for those who haven't seen it, this one might suffice in showing you just how great of a character he really is!

His name is Lorenzo Trudge-Along (his friends call him Speed).