Turtle!

The window over my desk faces our front yard and street. Since we are the first house on the street, people often use our driveway to turn around. Today, a car with two teenagers pulled up just past our driveway right next to the curb. I was watching to see what they were doing when suddenly the driver started throwing things out of the window onto the curb. This is right where us and our next door neighbors put out our trash, so I thought there was a trash bag he was aiming for. After he threw out a water bottle and what appeared to be change, I decided to put a stop to it. As soon as I opened the front door, they took off. I went out to pick up the trash and see what the trash bag was all about. To my surprise, it wasn't a trash bag, but a pretty darn big turtle!

I'm no turtle expert, but I know some of them are snapping turtles, so I kept my distance. Here he had already turned around and was headed back towards the neighbor's house.

I had never seen a turtle this big up close and on land. His body is so big under that shell! Look at that tail!

The way he has his head up here reminded me of a cobra.

When I got too close he shrank into his shell.

He headed straight for the neighbor's front door. I watched him for awhile and then went back inside. I hope he found his way back to his pond!

I know turtles are infamous for being slow, but this rascal is moving pretty quickly. It's a good thing, or I would've had turtle soup for dinner!