Good Deeds Day

During the summers when I was growing up, we would collect box turtles. If we saw one on the road when we were going somewhere, we would pick it up and bring it home. We would often return from somewhere to find boxes on our front porch with turtles in them and notes attached from friends and family. We had a big coop made out of chicken wire that my dad had made us. It was covered on all sides, even the bottom, so that nothing could dig under or out and the top was covered. It had a little door for us to open and latch so we could get them in and out. With it being outside, the grass grew up through the bottom and the bugs were pentiful for food. As summer ended, we would load up the turtles and drive off to the woods to release them all.

Remembering back on those summers and the turtles we had, if I see a turtle on the road I will pull over to the side of the road and rescue a turtle from the middle of the road. I cant stand to think that if I dont help the poor little thing, that the next time I come by it will be smushed and then I will bad knowing that I could have done something to save it. This morning I pulled over to move one and as I got up to him I could see drops of blood under his shell. Now he was right in the middle of the lane, so the cars would pass directly over him. For him to have been hit where he was, someone would have had to dilerately TRY to hit him. That's sad. Anyway, he was closed up and there wasnt a lot of blood, so I picked him up and moved him to the grassy side of the road. I hope he is okay and makes it.

Doing that made me think about one of the turtles we had one of those summers while I was growing up. He had been hit apparently and he lived. His shell was all cracked and in pieces, but it had stayed together and it was just a pile on the top of his back. We appropriately named him "Crash". So if he lived through having his shell broke, hopefully the poor little guy from this morning will be just fine.

That was actually my second good deed of the day and it wasnt even 8AM yet! My first good deed was slowing down and then stopping for a poor crazy squirrel to cross the street. Of course I made sure no one was behind me when I stopped. The poor little guy couldnt decided where he wanted to go and that included running down the middle of the street. Once he decided which side he wanted to go to, I went on down the road. That was the first good deed of my day.