Find a Turtle, Get a Field Trip!!

a post by Rooster

 The other day our dog was barking a whole lot. It looked like she was barking at something. Dad told me it was a turtle that she was barking at. He was crawling in our yard. I picked him up so I could study him and see what kind of turtle he was.

My brother Bird and I put him in a box. We named him Fudge.

We looked him up in our reptile book and we found out that he was a Southern Painted Turtle. They normally live in calm water like ponds. There are not any ponds by our house. I don't know how he got here. We decided to take him to our grandparent's farm and put him in the pond there.

At the pond we saw a LOT of turtles! I think one was an Eastern Painted Turtle. Or maybe a Southern Painted Turtle like Fudge. You can't see the turtles in this picture because when we walked over to the pond they all dove into the water to hide.

We took Fudge carefully out of the box and him put him on the ground near the pond.

At first, he was scared. He tried to go towards the grass, but Dad moved him closer to the pond and then he noticed the pond.

Fudge went toward the water...

...and he jumped right in.

After we put Fudge at his new home, we explored around the pond. We saw more turtles. Bird and I had fun looking around. It was a nice break from school that day.