Lil' Nut actually discovered it as we were leaving the house. Since the turtle was directly in the path of the rear tires on my 'Burban, I couldn't exactly go anywhere right at that moment. I ran back in the house and grabbed my camera. I figured we might as well fit in a science lesson before I "helped" the turtle out of the way.
Me: "Let's look at the nice turtle."
Lil' Nut: "Mommy, it's not a turtle! It's a scary animal-thing."
Me: "It is a turtle. It won't hurt you!"
Lil' Nut: "It is NOT a turtle! Turtles don't jump, and I saw it jump before you came out here when Buddy was barking at it!"
(That explained why the dog had been barking non-stop for the past 20 minutes.)
After putting Buddy in his kennel so that I could hear myself think, I slowly walked toward the turtle. He looked kind of mean and was about 18 inches long. As I squatted down to take a picture, the critter jumped right up off the driveway landed a few inches forward. He didn't just scoot, he jumped. I jumped, too, and screamed. :)
Lil' Nut said, "I told you, Mommy! It jumped!"
She was right. I'm pretty sure that it was a Florida Softshell (Apalone ferox). This species is pretty aggressive, and when they stick their heads out of the water they look like baby alligators. There are a ton of them in the pond behind the house.
I decided that I didn't want to be too close to Mr. Turtle after all. As I debated about grabbing a stick to help prod him out of the way, he took off at a brisk pace toward the pond.
I learned something new today; turtles can jump. Maybe that's how the tortoise beat the hare. :)
Labels: Outdoor Life, The Kiddos