Guest in The House

We had a suprise guest..a BIG one too! I was driving home yesterday and saw a turtle crossing from one construction site into another and knew that would not be good. So I stopped..but when I got out to pick it up..HOLY COW! The biggest turtle I have seen except for at a Zoo!!!! OMGOsh!!

I was nervous picking it up and it weighed a ton! I mean heavy! So I put it in the car..headed home. Took it up to the "turtle bathroom" and politely put Lady, our Box Turtle, into the tub. Didn't want a turtle fight and gesh..this turtle could squash her.

Well I did a little investigating and it turned out I had found a full size Red-eared Slider Turtle..and most likely a female due to the size. She was a good 12 inches in length and weighed 5 pounds!!!!!!!!!!! HUGE! Beautiful though..incredible green eyes..her legs were enormous and looked like snake's skin and what was really cool were that her back feet(big by the way) were webbed...she's a swimmer!!

As hard as I tried to get a picture of her with her legs and head out..she wasn't interested..too afraid of us. But I did get a couple..and shoot when you compare her to Lady alone..you can tell she is BIG!

I am happy to say that Scott took her to Bee Tree Park today and hopefully she will be safe there. The Zoo told me that they had a few already on hand. I was a bit upset they never gave me a chance to tell them that she was the biggest that is found..normally they are 4-5 inches in length. But at least now she has less of a chance of being run over by a bull dozer!HA

Julia