Cycling home today I came across a tortoise. Shell about the size of a large dinner plate and crushed horribly. I took it by the tail and lifted to remove it from the road simply to avoid the indignity of being repeately hit by traffic. Turns out it was quite alive. I won't be graphic but let's just say I don't know how.
Rockport apparently has no animal control and the only on-duty officers -- both of them -- were busy with an arrest. In Rockport. I'm not kidding.
Never had to kill an animal before. Isn't fun.
4 comments:
One of the girls I know who is 16 just told me a story of one of her turtles in her pond in Rockport got bit by one of the larger snapping turtles when she was 10 years old. Her mother thought she was being nice by bringing it inside to prepare to bury it when she came home found the turtle and realized it was alive. She being the resourceful type used duct tape to cover the hole. She changed the tape every day and the turtle survived. After about 10 weeks her mom put the turtle back in the pond (stupid mom)but from all accounts all worked out with this injured turtle. Just thought I would share...sorry you had to do the right thing even though sometimes it sucks.
That's a pretty cool story. Duct tape really IS good for everything! Wish I could have duct-taped that tortoise back together. Would have required ...well ...a lot of duct tape. Let's just say that.
When I was around 10-ish, I lived next to a large pond that housed a sizeable population of carp. There was this black guy that would fish using really heavy test line and his bare hands. Just wrapped a piece of bread around a huge hook and threw it out as far as he could. We used to spend time just watching him fish.
One day he had a few fish on shore and this HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE motherfscking turtle came out of the water and tried to grab one of the just-caught fish. Took a chunk out of its stomach but the thing lived. So my friends and I took it home in a wheelbarrel filled with water and fed it for a few weeks. It lived. No idea how. We released it after a week or two.
Hey,
Just thought I would tell you that I told my friend about your blog and that I shared her story and she said "wait, was he on a bike? I saw him and the turtle and almost stopped but thought he had it under control....small world. She did an awesome duct taping job on her sneakers and was showing me today....Happy Birthday!!
Jennie
*laugh. Yeah, that was me alright, shorts, yellow cycling glasses and probably my backpack.
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