They Seem to Always Find Us

The other night my Daughter ran out to get the mail.

On the way back in she tripped over something while looking at the mail

and thought she broke her toe.

We couldn't figure out what she had tripped over.

She thought it was a big rock.

She was on the sidewalk the entire time so there shouldn't have been anything in her path.

We walked to the front door and saw a big something in the walkway.

The way it was it looked weird, like a one eared cat that was sick and curled up.

Hey, it was dark!

We all slowly opened the screen...

we each had our "weapon" of choice..

mag light

golf club

baseball bat

&

BB Gun

Now we probably wouldn't have grabbed "weapons"

but we have been having prowlers at night in our court for the last week or so

and everyone is spooked.

It was dark and about midnight...

we just needed to be prepared.

Right? Right!

OK I'm a scaredy cat.

We all walked slowly up to this thing that was about

5 feet from our front door.

It was really hard to see what it was until we were practically on top of it.

It was a large Red Eared Slider! LOL

When I say large I mean huge!

It was about 12"-14" in diameter.

That is what she kicked! LOL

After seeing us it headed for the street...

can you blame it?

We kept moving it out of the street so it wouldn't get hit by a car,

should one come by.

But it kept heading back.

It stayed under my car for a bit.

We know a little bit about turtles and tortoises...

We've had Box Turtles in the past and currently have a pair of Russian Tortoises. 

Sliders can be aggressive and this one did try to bite while being picked up.

They live mostly in the water

 and need to eat their food in water because they don't have any saliva.

  

We weren't sure where this one came from.

They are native to California so he may not have been anyones pet.

Thought for a brief moment about letting him roam the backyard...

but he would probably jump in the pond and have sushi.

That wasn't an option.

We ended up putting him in a box.

We figured we could figure it out in the morning.

But he was so big he climbed the side of the box

and kept knocking it over and getting out.

Yes, Turtles and Tortoises climb.

We decided to release him in a water overflow area just a few blocks from us.

The sprinklers in the park would be coming on soon

and water would collect in this basin.

Animals seem to find their way to our home no matter where we are living.

In Miami a white dove, then a Sparrow showed up at our door.

Neither didn't look too good.

Cared for them and eventually released them when they were better.

In Sacramento a pigeon did the same thing.

And, of course, kittens and dogs find their way too.

Kinda makes you wonder if they can sense animal lovers.....