Animals

wow! i have rescued or helped dogs, rabbits, cats, birds, and now turtles! yes, you could say i am an animal lover.

okay! so some background..my grandparents have two dogs. big dogs. for the past couple of days, one of the dogs, bambi, has been spending a lot of time under their back porch. its dark and dirty under there. so i wanted to go over there yesterday (thursday) and see the dogs. my grandma said i could come over, but she said bambi (my favorite) wouldnt come out from under the porch. they suspected there was an animal under there. so she wanted me to look. so i went over and got a flashlight and looked under the porch. all i could see was this hoof-like object. and of course, that didnt make sense, so we will didnt know what it was. my grandma kept saying how sometime the neighbor's dog get a toy through the fence into their yard, or she thought maybe it was a ham bone that skip, the other dog, buried and bambi found it. i still said it looks like a hoof and it wasnt a bone. it kind of looked like a mini nerf football toy. so i couldnt figure it out and left. today i went over and my grandma said bambi stayed out all nite and wouldnt come in. so obviously she was outside under the porch the whole night, with this thing... so i looked under there once more, with a better flashlight, and still thought the same thing. my grandma asked if i could reach it with a rake or something similar. i was like, yeah probably. so i used a rake and got it out. it was definately a turltle shell!! and it was really bizarre looking. i have never seen anything like it. the shell was kind of dark brownish and had yellow/mustard colored markings on it. it was as big as my hand, maybe larger. i didnt wanna pick it up with my bare hands, so i used some rubber gloves. and my grandma and i looked at it up close. she wouldnt touch it ;). i thought it was dead. it was just a shell. it wasnt hollow. but i didnt see any openings for a head or legs/feet. obviously i dont know my turtle anatomy. soooo... my grandpa looked at it and put it out in the grass by the driveway. he thought he would leave it out overnite and maybe the turtle would still be alive. or something. i was like...okay, well don't throw it out because i wanna show it to my dad. i thot it was dead, completely.. i had taken oscar, my dog, over there. so in the meantime, by dog got out of the house. i was pissed. there is really nothing two old 80+ year olds can do. so he ran down the driveway. but was sniffing at the bushes in their yard. so it wasnt a complete fiasco. i was definately scared, but it turned out fine. when my dog was out of the house, my grandma called my mom. and of course my mom drove over here, she was freaked out as well. okay.. so me, my mom, grandma and grandpa was in the kitchen. my grandpa was looking out the kitchen window. all of a sudden he got all excited and was like, basically making all of us go outside. i dont think i have seen my grandpa move so fast... but the turtle had moved. which is funny, cus turtles are slow.. so my grandpa really didnt need to 'run'. so... my grandpa suspected in came around their house bc of the pool in the backyard. but its covered up. so i have no idea where it came from or how bambi got a hold of it. so my grandpa thought he needed to be near water or in water. so i offered to take him, the turtle, out to the park... soo.. we put him in a plastic grocery bag. he went into his shell. but when my mom and i were headed to the park, it started moving and was making holes in the bag. my mom was laughing at me and i was screeching and freaking out. then i saw one of his limbs stick out of the bag and then these CLAWS!!! i was like really freaking out. cus my mom said he might bite. and then when all this was happening, she was like... he's not gonna bite you. lol whatever. so i made mom stop the car and we put him in the truck. it either went to the bathroom or threw up in the bag, cus there was stuff in it. his head, and two front limbs were sticking out of three different holes. so yeah. put him in the truck. when we got out to the park, he was almost out of the bag. i am surprised.. i would have thot he would be scared and shut himself in his shell. but nooo... so i made sure he got into the water... i brought my camera along. but after the fiasco with it in the car, i was like, screw it! i had to get rid of the thing... no time for pictures. i wish i would have gotten one. cus i wanna know what kind it is. also before we took it out to the park. i seriously thought about keeping it. so i tried getting my mom's attention, and asked. and she was like. NO... we can't-they give off diseases. then i was like, well we could take it too the vet and clean it up.. like shots or something. but it didnt work. i rescued that turtle, and i wanted to keep it.. so thats my story..