A New Friend

Ever have one of those days where things rapidly devolve from normal to weird?  Surprisingly, much of my life is that way, but the most recent example happened a few weeks ago (yeah, Sister is that far behind in helping me share my stories with the world)—taking place early one Sunday morning out east. 

The day started as most Sunday mornings do.  Pa and I went outside first thing in the morning to do business and check the perimeters.  Usually, these morning rituals are fairly non eventful.  I mean, most mornings when I go outside I can smell the distinct scent of deer on the air and sometimes I’ve even found bits and pieces of fish strewed about the yard, but, for the most part, the worst I have to actually deal with is an errant squirrel trespassing through my territory. 

This Sunday, however, was different.  As I made my way toward the back corner of the yard, something caught my eye by the fence—something rather flat and oval with short little stubs pointing out in five directions.  Cautiously, I approached the object all the while shooting concerned looks over my shoulder at Pa who was backing me up from a distance too great for my liking. 

“Go ahead,” Pa said reassuringly.  “Check it out.” 

Check it out is a phrase I was taught a long time ago, back when I was concerned about attack garbage cans on my daily walks with Pa (hey, you never know).  Check it out means that whatever is in front of me will probably not kill me so I should walk over to it and give it a sniff. 

I shot Pa another concerned look.  “Really, check it out,” he said. 

Although against my better judgement, I cautiously approached the object and gave it a sniff.  Then I jumped about ten feet straight in the air when it suddenly retracted its head and legs. 

I had, on my paws, a real live box turtle. 

Now you might recall that I’ve had other near run-ins with turtles.  Sister once found a box turtle in the backyard out east, but I didn’t get to sniff him because I didn’t know he was there and she moved him before I did (here's the story of that day).  I also once saw a giant snapping turtle at Old Westbury Gardens, but didn’t get to sniff him either because Sister deemed his snapping mouth way too large to mess with (and here's that story).  But these two events were near misses, I wasn’t expecting to ever actually come face to face with a turtle. 

Anyway, once I got all four paws back on the Earth, I shot Pa a “what the heck?” look. 

“It’s okay.  Check it out,” Pa said again. 

If it weren’t for the fact that Pa and I are buds and I trust him completely, I would have walked away right then and there.  But no, I summoned up all the courage I could muster and gave the turtle a good long sniff… 

…and then I quickly ran off to check out a different part of the yard.  Not long after, the turtle slipped under the neighbor’s fence perhaps to go swimming in their pool. 

About a month later, the turtle and I crossed paths again against the backyard fence.  Having met before, I casually strolled up to it, gave him a “hey, how you doing?” sniff then he and I went our separate ways again.  

He's welcome to pass through my yard any time he likes on his way to the pool.