Our Turtle Ran Away

 

A couple of days ago I sat here in this chair with a plastic cup in my hand that I picked up from the local Feed & Seed weeks before.  In the bottom were three wiggly meal worms climbing over one another that were supposed to be breakfast for my turtle.  I was amazed that they were still alive without food or water for such a long, lonely time.  Deciding to show mercy to the poor insects, I stepped out onto our deck to set them free in the plastic kiddie pool garden filled with turtle-edible plants.  Immediately they burrowed down into the damp dirt to safety with their tiny, jointed legs.

One month previous, during the warm August days, those strawberry, spinach and kale plants had grown so tall and lush that Alfie the Box Turtle used one as a stepladder to escape his garden.  This wasn’t his first successful attempt as an escape artist.  In past summers he would find the perfect sturdy stem, heave his shell up over the edge and CLUNK - land upside down on the wood planks of our sunny deck.  Stretching his long neck to use as a lever, he would right himself and proceed to march all around the deck.  Afraid of heights he would stretch that telescopic neck to peer over the side, then always back safely away from the edge to move in a new direction, much like those Roomba vacuum cleaners that bounce and reverse and eventually cover every inch of the surface.  After many tries he would end up crossing the threshold of the patio door to wander inside the house.  We were always alarmed to find the pool empty, but the crisis would end when he was spotted scooting across the carpet or resting under the sofa.

This dreadful time, after a few days of looking, we faced the reality that Alfie was likely on the lam.  Assuming that the mild-mannered reptile wouldn’t go far, we alerted the neighborhood and waited for a chubby-cheeked, grinning child to ring the doorbell holding our handsome fella in one hand. 

Days became weeks, and then stretched to a month.  No doorbell, no sightings, no shouts of “How did you get here?!” from downstairs when I hoped my daughter would come upon him under a shoe or behind a cabinet.  As the nights grew chilly, we would all shiver at the thought of our frigid, wet Alfie.  Our cold-blooded friend who cannot regulate his own heat and depends on the warmth of the sun, his heat lamp or heating pad to keep him warm, was outside with no heat source at all. 

Or was he?  Could he be snuggled on the lap of the Cat Ladies down the road, being fed sautéed insects and Crème de la Mango from silver dishes?  Maybe he took up residence in the garage of our Engineer/Mechanic Hobbyist friend at the bottom of the hill and has been going on joyrides in the red muscle car, snuggling up to the heat vent on the floor below the passenger seat?  On the worst days I worried that there was a family of raccoons enjoying a meal of Turtle on the Half Shell…  There could be some truth to all of that, but we’ll never know.

Yesterday while sifting through Facebook I clicked on the Critter of the Week video from our local Humane Society.  After five seconds my mouth emitted a shriek of surprise, happiness, disbelief and excitement all in one breath.  There our fella was with a brand-new facial profile (they dremeled his beak to a fine, handsome point) but with the same old chips and scars we know him by! 

Somebody, we don’t know who, dropped him by the shelter after-hours.  They found him somewhere, we’re not sure where, by the side of the road.  The only thing we do know is that he had been there, at the shelter, for one week.  That means that for 3 weeks he was unaccounted for!

Now, with our turtle safe back at home, we look at him and wonder what he went through.  We check him over for scars that might tell a story.  I haven’t found any biker club tattoos on his arms or diamond rings on his claws to shed light on his activities for the 21 days he was on the lam.  All we know is that he is vigorously active, voraciously hungry, and bolder and more confident than we ever knew him to be before this adventure.  Someday will we come across a litter of baby turtles that have his same strong profile and deep, red eyes?

I am delighted that on this rainy morning he is inside his heated home gorging on a pile of soft green peas.  When the sun comes out this weekend I will prune his garden and let him out for a wander in the sun.  Those three little mealworms had better be on their toes, because WATCH OUT!  Alfie is back!