June 7 - Lisa's Musings (on turtles) and Every Day Life

First it was moles, then snakes, and now turtles. They’ve all been in the dog yard. So, technically, that pretty much makes them fair game for the dogs.

This afternoon, Driver got himself a small turtle. He found it in the tall grass along the side of the fence, and I haven’t a clue how it even got into the dog yard.

There’s not a lot of turtle-sized openings.

Moles, voles, small bunnies, snakes, those creatures have pretty easy access to the chain-link fenced-in dog yard. But a turtle?

And I think this was a small snapping turtle. It was kinda hard to tell because its little head and legs were tightly pulled into its dark shell.

But I’ve seen these turtles in adult size and learned, almost the hard way, NOT to help them cross the road. So, once I figured out what Driver had found, I got the pooper-scooper to pick it up and get it out of the dog yard.

The problem was, even though I tried to fake him out by picking up some poop en route, he wasn’t buying it.

He’s pretty smart for a puppy.

Driver knew I was coming to get his chew toy and take it away. Which, of course, I was.

So, he grabbed it in his mouth, crunch, crunch, crunch and took off with it. I tried to act all nonchalant and look for more poop, hoping that he’d stop chomping it -- they way he chews on raw, meaty bones.

It’s not like the turtle was moving around or anything. It was doing what turtles do when they sense danger.

Well, except for large snapping turtles.

However, Driver knows me too well by now, so the chase was on. Keep in mind, he’s got four legs and is in shape; I’ve got two and am woefully out of shape.

Ryan was pretty non interested, so there was only one dog to hunt down, and eventually, after Driver had taken some good-sized bites out of its shell, his jaw must have gotten tired because he dropped it.

An opening for me to scoop it up and toss it over the fence.

I have no idea if it’s dead or alive – as I said, Driver had done a pretty good job of taking chunks out of the side of its shell as well as chomping down on the center.

While I’m writing this, he’s looking longingly through the fence in the area where I tossed the turtle. Standing guard, if you will.

Or hoping it’s stupid enough to find its way back through the fence.

I’m starting to get a little concerned about these dogs as they graduate to larger and larger prey – I just hope a deer doesn’t jump into the dog yard next.