Lucky's Lucky Day -- Damn Developers!
July 7, 2008:
"Brian, that was a turtle in the road! He'll never make it across four lanes of traffic; he'll be squished!"
Here's another reason I love this man -- he immediately pulled off the road and stopped so I could rescue the struggling turtle.
We were on Catron Boulevard in Rapid City; I ran back up the road waving at traffic and hoping no one would zoom over the hill and hit the turtle.
A woman stopped to ask if I was all right -- I must have looked pretty wild, running up the road and waving my arms. "Thanks, I'm fine," I yelled. "Just trying to rescue a turtle." That earned me a funny look!
Lucky's Dangerous Journey
And there he was, hunkered down in the road, not knowing which way to go. I grabbed him up by the edges of his shell and walked back down the hill to Brian and the car.
"What will we do with him?" I asked. "He must be from that old creek bed where they're tearing everything up to build more houses. And there's no place for him across the road; they've already built the car wash, storage units, strip malls, and apartment complex there where the creek was. He has no home!"
Lucky, as we named him, promptly pee'd in my lap. Thank goodness I was wearing jeans and not shorts! He was struggling, his little claws trying to make headway on my jeans. We needed to find him a home soon.
A Homeless and Frightened Lucky Pees
"How about the pond at the golf course?" Brian asked. "There must be turtles there since there's a turtle crossing sign on the entry road."
"Wonderful idea! Let's get him there; he seems to be getting weaker," I said.
So we zoomed back up the hill to the Hart Ranch golf course. I carried Lucky across the rough grass to the edge of the pond; his struggles were frantic as I carried him.
And then he found the pond. Whew! He scrambled to the water's edge and swam leisurely into the cattails. We had saved Lucky, the red-eared slider turtle, from the habitat encroachment at his old creek.
-- Louise with photos by Brian. Text and photos copyright GoinMobyle, LLC 2009
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