We found a surprise visitor hanging out in our garage yesterday! It was not a person. I will give you a few hints and see if you can guess what it is. It’s an animal…it has 4 legs and a tail…it’s dark green and it doesn’t make much noise but it did hiss at us when my husband, Grandpa Rick, picked it up. They move very slowly…can you guess what it is? Do you need another clue? It carries its house with it. Now I’m sure you guessed it right! Look at the picture below to see who surprised us…
A turtle!! Did you guess a turtle? It pulled it’s head and legs inside it’s shell. We think it’s a painted turtle but I actually don’t know much about turtles. The biggest mystery is how did it get inside our garage? Hmm…the garage doors are usually closed unless we need to bring the tractor out. Maybe it snuck in when Grandpa Rick mowed the grass.
Since it couldn’t survive if it stayed inside our garage, Grandpa Rick picked it up using his heavy gloves. Turtles can carry a germ called salmonella so we need to be careful about washing our hands after touching them. Also, we didn’t know if the turtle might try to bite him, so it seemed the best idea to wear gloves while moving it. We found a nice spot of grass away from where it might get stepped on or run over and set it down.
I think it was glad to be back in the grass instead of on the hard cement, but it was still rather scared of us. We must look pretty big to it! It tried to hide down inside the grass but you can still see most of it. Notice it’s one back foot and its cute little tail!
We went away and left it alone so it could move onto it’s next destination. This morning it was gone. So long, turtle friend! It was nice to meet you! We hope you have a good and happy life free in nature! 🙂
The Kids Niche 