Freedom for Turtle #3

The first hint of Autumn is upon us, so it's time to release the last of Thomas's turtles into the wild. He got them a few years ago, and as reported on an earlier blog, the female was released long ago, as she was getting way too big. The two remaining, one male and one female, lived together peacefully until earlier this year (or was it last year?) when one of them turned up her wee turtle toes and had to be buried in the back yard. Since that time, the other one has been looking lonely (there may be some projection involved, as all turtles always look just like grumpy old men) and made a memorable break for freedom a while ago (as Jami will relate below), so I decided, after much stalling from Thomas, to take matters into my own hands (as nobody else can bear to pick the damn things up). As you can see: first signs of Autumn.

I smuggled him in in my hat:

We decided to release him in one of the smaller lakes in the woods.  Frederick leads the way.

Ah, the perfect spot.

Here we go:

The break for freedom that Simon is referring to took place about two weeks ago.  Thomas came home from school and noticed that the turtle was not in his house.  This was amazing and alarming as the aquarium top is about four feet off the ground so we all (me, Simon, Thomas and Jimmy) looked about the place, very much expecting to find a turtle on its cracked open back.  What we did find was exactly nothing--no sign of him--until we looked in the next room (Thomas's blue room) and poked around under the bookshelf.  Well, Simon did and got hissed at for his troubles.  None of us can figure out how the turtle managed to leap out of the aquarium, scuttle down its side, leap down on to the floor, make his way across the floor into the next room, drop down a 6" step and then scamper across the room to hide under the bookshelf---all the while avoiding the bone crushing jaws and grasping claws of two very Turtle Curious cats.
So the non-human head count in this household at this time: two cats, two ducks.  Who will be next?