Turtle!

I'm so disappointed in my photos of this snapping turtle. This thing was large! The shell was in the 12-14" range. The tail added another 4-6 inches, the head when extended must have added another 3-4." I was so afraid that it would move that I didn't even think to get anything in the background that would give an indication of its size. And I was cautious about getting too close to it, as well. These things have a nasty reputation, most of it well deserved.

This isn't the snapping turtle that I rescued from the road last week. That one was a baby compared to this one. Here's how I found this one: Baby Dog and I were out for our early morning walk when I saw what I thought was one of the outdoor cats that hang around Roundtop in the center of the mountain's dirt service road. But it didn’t look quite right. So I got a little closer and then thought ah, there’s 2 cats there. But it still didn’t look quite right. So I got a little closer, and now I realized it was a turtle walking, not crawling, but walking up on its legs. The bottom of its shell was a good 5-6" above the ground. It was those back legs that I took for cats.

So I quickly rushed back to the cabin with Baby Dog, grabbed the camera and went back to look for the turtle. Much to my amazement (but, duh! It’s a turtle!) it was still there. As soon as it saw me, it came down off its legs, with the bottom of its shell resting on the ground, and suddenly it didn’t look nearly so big. Who know where it was going, but it was on a mission to somewhere.