A Turtle Rescue & Princess-in-Training - Part One

Today we traveled to Duke Gardens for pictures, fun with friends, and some nature study time.  Although I always intend to do some specific study while we're there, we usually get so caught up in the beauty that we don't focus only on blooming flowers, crawling insects, or two-legged creatures.

Today, however, after marveling in God's creation for a few hours, this small turtle totally captured our attention.

One of our friends found it, but My Big Helper quickly scooped him up and assumed a leadership role in the turtle rescue.

She happily inspected its body and was quite happy to share her findings, like "He's got sharp claws, Mommy!"

She also held him still so that the other kids could check him out.  They agreed that his tummy was quite soft.

After thoroughly exploring him, we decided it might be best to move him closer to water than the middle-of-the-field where we found him.  We found some workers who knew quite a bit about turtles, and they offered to relocate him for us.  While they finished their current task, they got a bucket for him to swim around in.  

My Big Helper was quite sad to leave the turtle, and she talked about him the rest of the day.  While getting ready for bed, she announced that "I've never seen a turtle bottom before!"  When I laughed, she smiled wryly and assured me that she meant the underside of his shell.

After that she quietly snuck off to the playroom to make a list of all the information she wants to learn about turtles. She's hoping to learn how to take care of them so that the next time she finds a stray turtle, she can bring it home and make a turtle pet out of it.  (I can't convince her that this won't work yet, but I'm happy about the research part of it.) 

So, I think we'll be spending our weekend doing some research.  If you want to learn more about turtles, these websites seem to be a good starting point.

• Turtles
• Raising Baby Turtles
• Turtle Puddle

Come back tomorrow for our Princess-in-Training pictures!