Baby Turtle Rescue

Back early February (the 7th to be exact) I told you about our outing to a river beach.  The day was almost hot and had been for a few days.  That was changing quickly tho... an arctic blast was heading in with those clouds you see.  For the next week temps were going to be at or below freezing.

As I walked across the middle of that beach I was looking down for small bits of drift wood for a project I'm gathering for.  Then I saw something 'different' in the sand.  Hoping I was seeing wrong I looked closer.  Yes, it was a baby turtle.  I thought the poor thing was dead and gave it a poke with my foot.  It weakly pulled in!  

I snatched 'her' up (aren't all small cute things a 'her'?) and Himself took her over to a warmish puddle to cool off.  After a bit she started reviving but was still sooo weak.  

Decision time.  

Within a few hours the temperature would be below freezing and wasn't going to improve soon.  So we put her in a container and took her home with us.  I have a lot of experience with baby turtles, dating back to my childhood.  I would raise little turtles until they were about 4" across then let them go in my step-grandfather's farm pond.  He had a lot of turtles in that pond!  LOL

I set her up an area near my computer desk on the shelf that is wintering my succulents.  A trip to PetCo secured her dinners of small meal worms.  Little piggy loved her worms!

Baby Turtle thrived (no name for her since she was only a visitor).

For 2 months she enjoyed her temporary home.

On April 9th we took her back to where we found her...well almost.  There is a really nice pond across the small road from the beach.  That is her new home.

We placed her on a stone at the edge of the pond.  She looked around a bit, looked up at us (as tho saying 'thanks'), and slid into the water.  She swam around a bit then dove out of sight.

She seemed happy.