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Yesterday morning on the way to taking Charlotte to school, I am coming down the hill and I see a black thing down at the bottom…and it was moving.
Slowly.
I thought, OMG, is that a KITTEN! I slowed down as much as the hill allowed and realized it was a turtle. I was going about 35 which is pretty fast coming at a turtle and I got around him and then pulled into the next road and stopped the car. I locked Charlotte in and ran up the highway. As I am running an SUV is coming down the road about 45MPH and I am pointing at the turtle and yelling. They see it and avoid it.
I think I would have died watching this thing get run over.
I get him out of the road and run him back to the car, show Charlotte, and put him in a ditch off the road.
We were back in the car 3 minutes before I see TWO MORE turtles in the road. One was a baby, just coming off the highway pretty quickly and the other had just started his adventure across 2 lanes of vicious traffic and was directly in front of me. I stop the car and the jackass behind me, you know cause everyone randomly stops in the middle of the road for no reason, gets pissed off and goes around me and narrowly misses the turtle.
I jump out and the traffic in the other direction was kind enough to stop and I ran him across the road and got back in the car.
It was like frogger..with turtles.
Today picking up Charlotte we saw another one in the middle of the road but he had been hit.
It just sucks to be a turtle.
~trisha
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aww I love turtles. Good for you for trying to save a few
That’s so sad! I try to save turtles all the time. They’re seriously my favorite animals.
I wouldn’t try doing this in Colorado. You’d get hit, believe me. It’s happened to people before. The person who hits you doesn’t get a ticket either, because you’re not in a cross walk. So if you come to Colorado it’s better to just slow down, try to avoid hitting the creatures, but not get out in the busy roads yourself.
Hubby and I keep the animal shelter numbers available and call them when we think there’s an animal needing help/protection in such instances. They actually did respond when we called them about a mother deer and her two babies wandering around on a busy street in Colorado Springs (we don’t live in Colorado Springs, but go there sometimes).
I hope you wiped your hands off well with a wet one too after touching a wild turtle. They often carry Salomenella.
You’re braver than I would be.
poor turtles! I can’t stand to see them in the road either! Thanks for helping them!
Good for you Trisha! If only there were more people in this world that would stop to help a defenseless animal (or reptile), we would have a much kinder society.
I’m so proud of you. Yeah!!! And I also couldn’t help but laugh because I was doing the same thing with a wild goose not too long ago, literally a wild goose chase.
Yes I was the crazy lady in the middle of a very busy four lane road herding the goose off to the shoulder and then running alongside of it so that it couldn’t run back into it, until I ran it off into a wooded area that lead back to a lake. The goose kept shooting dirty looks at me as we were running.
Luckily, everyone in the cars were very nice and decided to wait and not run either I or the goose over.They just stopped and waited patiently until we were off the road. I work for a vet, and was headed back for our main office so my shirt said “The Animal Emergency Clinic”. I guess they thought I was a professional. Unfortunately I do bookkeeping.
It’s sad about that last turtle, but you do what you can.
LOL!! I am dying laughing picturing you doing this. BUT I am so glad you did, cause otherwise I would be crying. Poor turtles! So glad you saved them!
Glad you saved them!
I cannot tell you my turtle story.
@ bloggymommy3:
now im going to have nightmares.
LOL Poor little turtles! I always stop to move them off the road too. On my wedding day I was walking some friends out to their car and saw a kitten being chased by some dogs so I ran over to try to get him so he wouldn’t get hurt. I was about 10 feet away when a car came along (VERY FAST) and ran right over him. It was terrible…I started crying. Not only b/c I saw this poor thing get hit but b/c I was close enough to hear the “crunch” when it happened. Uggg…
I almost ran over a turtle last week. The frogs get really bad out here after it rains. I swear they almost completely cover the road.
All I can picture now is you playing Human Frogger holding a turtle! Glad you did the right thing and saved the turtles though!
We saw a SNAPPING TURTLE down our road that was seriously head in the road but looked like a rock last summer. I called Animal Control but “they didn’t handle those cases” UH Then who does? He was in a populated area and obviously there was no way we could have picked him up and moved him without losing a finger!
I am thankful you saved the Turtles… It wasn’t a funny story at all until you said it was like Playing Frogger with Turtles and then it happened.. The Frogger music, Me picturing you and the turtle hopping from lane to lane trying not to get squished by a truck or car…
I loved playing the arcade game Frogger.. PacMan, Ms.PacMan.. I am so stinking old..
Have a great day!!!
It’s that time of season. I avoided a baby turtle yesterday. It was so cute! If they would only STAY OUT OF THE ROAD!