I Moved a Turtle

As I drove up the road home today, I came across a turtle. Luckily for him I wasn't looking at him in my rearview mirror.

I had a hunch that he was a bit lost; he was walking parallel to the bank of the pond rather than towards it. Worse yet, of course, was that he was heading across a dirt road under the noontime sun.

I stopped the car and got out. I had to decide whether to place him ten feet forward or to move him three feet back, where he was coming from. I decided to move him forward, so I picked him up and moved him into the woods. This was the first time I'd ever held a turtle. But then I reconsidered. My guess is that he would eventually want to come back, and that would double his risk. So I put him back where he'd come from, but as I did so, some water tipped out of his shell. My lack of turtle-holding was showing. Happily for both of us, there was a large puddle nearby, so I poured a bit over the turtle and his new (old) surroundings and sent him on his way. Slowly.