It's Been a Turtle Week

Well it's Saturday evening and breeze is cool enough as long as I sit in front of the fan. Amazingly I feel like I have gone from one extreme (freezing cold) to the other (hot as hell). Either are just as disconcerting. Both leave me wanting to lie still either under a cover or in front of a fan.... too hot now to exert much energy .. sheesh. So I try to get up early while the weather is tolerable and do what ever needs doin outside. 

I have been struggling due to financial hardships from being unemployed. That is not a fun situation and finding work is harder when your mood is not so good. So inspite of the difficulties I have had some nice experiences lately. The first one was early in the week ... I was really feeling bad ... and went outside to get a change of scenery when I looked over at my dog Misty and saw her sitting in the flower bed in front of the porch .. she just seemed to have this look about her that made me say " what are you up to?" and as I approached I saw what I was sure was a toad .. and I questioned her .. "Did you get a toad?? " which usually means one thing .. that nasty poison in the mouth .. that leaves the dog frothing and wondering why the toad didnt want to play too? So I was getting ready to wipe her mouth out with a rag when I looked a bit closer at the toad and saw that it was a Turtle laying upside down .. I was surprised .. I hadn't looked that closely before and picked it up right away and started to inspect it to see if there were any puncture wounds or bleeding and I saw none of that.. just a muddy shell .. so .. i took it in and washed it off .. and as we were headed back out the door I saw it's eyes open .. i was so excited. After giving it some thought I decided perhaps he needed a rest so I would keep it in a bucket till I was sure he could walk and was ok .. in the mean time .. i had to get the camera.. cause he was a baby alligator turtle .. very interesting to look at and I wanted to get some pictures .. So here are a few of him ..

 His eyes were pretty spaced out. I can't imagine how

frightening it must have been being attacked by a dog and then this human is just staring at me .. after a while I realized that it wasn't injured and that it really just wanted to be back in some body of water. Where they usually live. So I walked it down to the creek and sat him on the shore and then .. after a few minutes of watching it there it took off into the water .. amazing and every few seconds it would poke his head out to get a breath of air. Amazing to watch. I really enjoyed the whole experience.   Then today I went off to run an errand and as my car was driving down the road I thought that what I'd seen was another turtle so I stopped and sure enough here was another turtle upside down in the middle of the road. This was a box turtle and who knows how it got turned upside down but there it was. I decided I needed to get pictures of it as well so he went along with me in the car. I left him in there while I ran a quick errand that didnt require me to leave the car. So .. after we got home I took some photos. Here he is .. it is interesting to notice the differences in the two turtles. The box turtles eyes .. were big and round .. with out the center detail in the alligator turtle. I guess they were both big one was just darker then the other .. fascinating though.