Previous journal has the details. Essentially, someone dumped a pet turtle into the concrete pond at our condo complex.
I decided that rather than let it starve, or go wandering in search of food and be run over by cars, to go recover the turtle.



I put on shorts and sandals, and went for a walk.

I was afraid I might have to go rooting around under the big rocks in the pond, but when I got to the pond, the turtle was right near the walkway.

The water being pretty shallow, I just waded in.
Turtles are not fast swimmers, and I was confident I could move faster than it could if it freaked out and tried to get away.

She did start to swim faster, but when I got within reach, she swam up to the surface.
Then she changed her mind and tried to sound.
But the water is barely knee deep for me, and the bottom is hard concrete.


So I just scooped her up from behind.
I'm experienced with turtles....Never grab them from the front unless you want to get bitten.

Got her out of the water, and she was actually quite calm.
Kept her head out and looked at me, no attempts to do the spastic "escape dogpaddle frenzy".

I wouldn't describe any turtle as friendly, because they're not.
But she definitely wasn't afraid.
I had the distinct impression she was hoping I'd feed her.

I had already called the county animal shelter to make sure they'd take a turtle for adoption.
There was some concern in my mind that she might be classified as an invasive species, and be legally mandated to be euthanized by the department of fish and game.

However, the shelter people were surprised I'd even think that, and assured me there would be no trouble and they would be happy to take her for adoption.

An uneventful drive to the shelter resulted in some friendly chatting with the guy working admissions- who turned out to be a herp fan himself.

We got her examined quickly. I had already indentified her as a female.
I did not take the time to determine if she was a red eared slider, or a false map turtle.
Both are very similar, but I do not believe it matters for legalities in this case.

The whole time she was trying to escape the box, and wasn't even slightly shy about being looked at or handled.
The entries guy agreed with me that she was an excellent candidate for adoption- Very calm and curious about the people around her.

She's clearly been hand raised as a pet.


I spent a little time looking at adoptable pets while I was there.

ken is allergic to cats, so I kind of tried not to look too much at them.
Theres just no way we could have a cat here.

The dogs were an interesting bunch.
Several huskies caught my eye.

Those would probably be too much dog for this place...But Ken has mentioned in the past that if I wanted a dog he was okay with it...As long as I do the work to take care of it.
And thats perfectly fair.

So I collected an adoption info sheet, and now I have some hard thinking to do.

I was raised with dogs, and until I moved away from home, there were always dogs around me.
I had not realized until recently how much I missed it.

I made a decision as well quite a while ago, that I would only take shelter dogs if I got another one.

Maybe if a friend had a dog they couldn't keep anymore, I'd consider it.
But I really feel that shelter dogs are the best choice.


Well, I have the adoption number of the turtle, so I can keep track of her and see how she is doing.

I did take a couple of pics before taking her in.
I'll see about posting later.


-Badger-