An Unexpected Visitor

We had an unexpected visitor last night. My son found him crawling up the driveway and followed him to a bunch of shrubbery where he burrowed down into the pinestraw to have a rest after his long walk from the lake across the street. When Dad got home (because Mom was not brave enough or in this case, stupid enough to fish said tortise out from under the bushes) they rousted what I presumed was a box turtle (remember he burrowed in, I could only see the top of his shell which did not have the tell-tale yellow markings) out from under the shrubbery.

 

As you can see Mister Turtle was no boxer, he was a SNAPPER! Poor thing had fishing line wrapped around his neck and all around his legs inside his shell. How he even got as far as he did is a mystery.

 

He needed a bit of diversion while Dad and the kids did their best to detangle and remove the fishing line.

 

Once that orderal was chronicled and over, Mr. Snappy was taken back across the street to the lake where he hopped in and swam off, hopefully to lead a longer life! A lesson to us all to be good care takers of the earth and it's creatures!