The Story of the Little Turtle

The Story of the Little Turtle by Yours Truly...

Once upon a time, a shopowner took her dog out back of the shop to play ball. In the midst of playing said ball, the shopowner discovered a very small (1-1/2" size shell) turtle on the concrete. The little guy wasn't moving and didn't even pull his little arms and legs in when he was picked up. By the shopowner not the dog.

So the shopowner and the dog went back inside the store with the Little Turtle. The shopowner took a small pink paper plate and put 2 tablespoons or so of water on it. She placed the Little Turtle half in the water and half out. She figured he was dehydrated. The Little Turtle didn't move for ...

quite...

some...

time.

When he began to move and attempted his first escape, the shopowner scooted his Little Turtle butt back onto the plate and then got a little plastic cup and put more water on the plate as it appeared some of the water was missing. Meanwhile she waited on customers.

Later when she turned around she found that the Little Turtle had managed to crawl off the plate, shinny down the legs of the table (okay, he might have hurtled himself off the table) and the likely turtle ran over to the Mill Hill bead wall, apparently looking for a good time - possibly a tight fitting bangle bracelet for his Little Turtle arms.

The shopowner thought to herself "Well! This won't do! I can't have a Little Turtle loose in the shop where an unknowing customer foot or a big golden retriever paw would do Little Turtle in!" So she found a very much LARGER plastic bowl with TALL sides, did the water trick again and put the Little Turtle in it. It just happened to be a heartshaped clear plastic bowl usually used for candy at the shop. (Yum. Little Turtle germs.)

After the work-a-day was over the environmentally sensitive naturalist (not nudist!) shopowner took the turtle for a ride in her Pontiac for 35 miles. She would have been happy to place the Little Turtle in a pond closer to his Grand Blanc habitat but not being a Grand Blanker(?), she had no idea where the nearest pond that she could access might be. She sure knew that there were 3 large ponds and a REALLY BIG LAKE near her home.

The crazy - um - Env. Sens. Nat. shopowner (see above) took a picture of the Little Turtle so she would always remember him (no really, she wanted to identify his type later), and let him out of the bowl gently into one of the large ponds near her home. (This is not the pond by the way - background was changed to protect Little Turtle from both fans and stalkers.)

The Little Turtle looked quizzically up at the shopowner as if to say "What? You're not going to make me into a tasty Little Turtle soup?" The shopowner said "Go Little Turtle. Go eat something and keep growing. Have a good life. Maybe come visit sometime. I like to look at turtles. And if you ever meet a hare racing for a good time, just remember you always win." So the Little Turtle walked out of the bowl into the leaves and the pond that was to become his new home until he decided to move again.

The End

P.S. No turtles, golden retrievers or customers were harmed in the writing of this story.