My turtle friends….

My husband, Bill, has dubbed me a turtle conservationist. I carry a plastic pad in the back of my SUV so that I can rescue errant turtles that make their way onto the roadways around our area. I’ve rescued some big ones and some small ones. Once a toddler grandaughter was with me and she squealed with delight when we rescued a turtle from a side street and relocated it to a marsh a few blocks away. She talked about the turtle for the next several visits.

This weekend Bill’s friend from Nashville, Pete, was here visiting and, while fishing off our dock, he hooked a turtle that tried to snag his shrimp bait. He and I were able to disengage the hook after some maneuvering using needle nosed pliers and a hemostat and sent the turtle back to his watery home. All this occurred while Bill and our cats watched us. I have no idea how susceptible turtles are to infection and whether our little boxed friend will survive his misadventure or not. But we made the effort.

I’m also a spider rescuer. If I find one in the house, I use a plastic cup and piece of paper to capture and relocate it to the outdoors. Now even Bill gets in on the action, alerting me to the presence of an arachnid visitor and urging me to hurry along with the relocation.

We have not adopted the same policy with roaches. Fortunately, we don’t see many of them, having contracted with a pest control company to do that for us! You might think us inconsistent in our humane efforts, but I have never heard that roaches are as beneficial as spiders in controlling the other pests around the home!