I Found A Tortoise In An Odd Location. O_o

[ShadowTiger]

... ... Yeah, .. like the topic says, I found a tortoise! O_O

I was cleaning out the weeds in my backyard, (QUITE a few of them, but they were only in one corner. But they were LARGE.) and eventually, I come across this fist-sized round .. "Rock" thing. I pick it up, and parts of it retreat its its .. Shell! I had found a tortoise under the leafy canopy of these weeds I was picking! Imagine my surprise!

The thing is, I have NO IDEA where a tortoise could have come from. I mean, it's kinda like finding a jumprope in the Sahara, or a ... I don't know, ... any weird item anywhere. I had no idea you could find a tortoise in your own back yard. It was wild! Covered in dirt and crud, like it had been there for a long time in those weeds. Utterly amazing. I don't think any of my neighbors own turtles either.

So I just slipped it back into those weeds, and didn't pick that small area. I hope it's happy living in our backyard. And hey, who knows. Maybe we'll get little tortoises soon. ^_^; That'd be nice.


Have you ever found anything strange in your backyard? o_O

[slothman]

How big was it?
The stranged thing I found was a possum and wild turkies. None in the back yard though. Deers, I'm trying to bring back that style, are about the oddest.

[Great Warrior]

That is very nice. I find cottontails, and once a new mamma with her little ones. The next day they were gone.

[Kairyu]

I live in a relatively woody area in Northwest DE, so I see turtles on a fairly regular basis. During the summer. When I go outside looking on the ground. Which really isn't all that often, now that I think about it.
I found a turtle with someone's initials in it once, but I forget if they were my Uncle's or a stranger's.
I have a relative who lives a couple miles off with an Emu farm. I haven't seen her in a while, so she may have gotten rid of them or something.

[Sephiroth]

around where I live, (Western Kentucky), I am out riding around in the truck to go into town, and we usually see 1-3 land turtles crossing the road. O_o What's up with that?

[carrot red]

How big was it?

I come across this fist-sized round .. "Rock" thing.

If you want it to live in your backyard, set up a nicer cleaner spot for it, BH4. Bring it food and water too.

[JayeM]

I went out to put some trash in my garbage can once and there was a raccoon in it. It was mean, so I just tipped the can over and left...came back later and it was gone, but it had shit all in my garbage can. :(

[Carcer]

I was walking on the heath a long time ago when I came across a fox.
Now, foxes are quite uncommon on heaths, but this one was special. For it was headless. Clean off. On a heath?
Not far from there I found a plastic sword.

[Rainman]

My dad was plowing once when he heard a scream from the dirt. It was from hell apparently, but a bunch of baby rabbits. We just sort of took them from the garden and put them nearby. We never saw them again.

[ShadowTiger]

If you want it to live in your backyard, set up a nicer cleaner spot for it, BH4. Bring it food and water too.
Heh. Thanks, we did. :) Besides not cutting down / dicing up / ... simply picking the weeds the tortoise seems to be living under, (It's always found in roughly the same spot in the weed patch.) we've brought the hose to it, gotten the spot moist, and put down some lettuce for it. I hope it likes it. ^_^

[Sephiroth]

Heh. Thanks, we did. :) Besides not cutting down / dicing up / ... simply picking the weeds the tortoise seems to be living under, (It's always found in roughly the same spot in the weed patch.) we've brought the hose to it, gotten the spot moist, and put down some lettuce for it. I hope it likes it. ^_^
That's nice BH4. :) I hope that turtle likes you. :)

[Archibaldo]

I found a snapping turtle once on a property near me. It seemed to be quite far from the swamp like a good 40/45 feet from the swamp. My dad tried to picked it up and the turtle almost bit him. :D

[Great Warrior]

Turtles could kill you.
Girl, 6, killed by car while trying to save turtle
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/08/girl.killed.ap/index.html

FORT MYERS, Florida (AP) -- A 6-year-old girl darted into traffic to save a turtle and was killed when she was hit by a car, officials said.

Emily Kent was riding with her mother Sunday when they spotted the turtle trying to cross busy U.S. 41.

Geraldine Kent pulled over so they could help, and Emily jumped out as her mother screamed at her to wait, friends said. The first-grader was struck by a car and died of her injuries. No charges had been filed.

"I've had a lot of drivers swerve to avoid a raccoon or another animal and wreck their cars," said Sgt. Owen Keen of the Florida Highway Patrol. "I've never had anyone go to help an animal and get run over."

Friends and family said Emily was an animal lover who would often try to catch turtles and snakes and never went far without her dog, Alexis.

CNN didnt say if the turtle lived.

[cyberkitten]

i was attacked by a groundhog in my parents backyard. apparently i cornered it when i walked up onto the deck where it was hanging out. what was i thinking...walking up onto my own deck..how foolish of me :odd:

and i've had a mouse jump out of a bag of dog food.

and once, we found a chipmunk in the lab. my brother thought it was a mouse, cuz he just saw a little fuzzy thing, so we put out traps, but kept finding rodent poop on our desks. i looked over and saw it sitting in the middle off the micro lab and was like "omg, that's not a mouse, it's a chipmunk!!" i caught it and turned it loose into a nearby yard...and it ran right back into the lab.

oh, and last 4th of july, i set the cat carrier out on the back porch, and an injured baby starling hopped inside. i nursed him back to health (with the gay lion's help) and we named him damien. we fed it fruit and it ate ALL the time. pooped alot, too. but for some reason, i woke up one morning and he was dead. i was crushed, since he wasn't showing any signs of being sick and we were actually making some progress trying to teach him to fly. poor damien :(

[Glitch]

oh, and last 4th of july, i set the cat carrier out on the back porch, and an injured baby starling hopped inside. i nursed him back to health (with the gay lion's help) and we named him damien. we fed it fruit and it ate ALL the time. pooped alot, too. but for some reason, i woke up one morning and he was dead. i was crushed, since he wasn't showing any signs of being sick and we were actually making some progress trying to teach him to fly. poor damien :(

It is hopeless to try to nurse a baby bird back to health in my opinion. Between my sister and I we have attempted to save dozens of birds, and they all just suddenly die one day. I have no clue why.

[ShadowTiger]

Yikes. I heard somewhere that once a human makes contact with an infant avian, the mother essentially disowns it. I'm not sure how applicable that is to the majority of the avian world, or to the rest of the animal kingdom, actually. But I could understand such a thing. Smell is very important in the world. Even to humans. We just can't detect it or are as oriented around it as they are.

[Sephiroth]

Yikes. I heard somewhere that once a human makes contact with an infant avian, the mother essentially disowns it. I'm not sure how applicable that is to the majority of the avian world, or to the rest of the animal kingdom, actually. But I could understand such a thing. Smell is very important in the world. Even to humans. We just can't detect it or are as oriented around it as they are.
one question. What is an "infant avion"? O_o Is it a type of turtle? O_o

[Rainman]

Yikes. I heard somewhere that once a human makes contact with an infant avian, the mother essentially disowns it. I'm not sure how applicable that is to the majority of the avian world, or to the rest of the animal kingdom, actually. But I could understand such a thing. Smell is very important in the world. Even to humans. We just can't detect it or are as oriented around it as they are.
I've heard that that's not necessarily true. Perhaps if the baby was seriously "compromised", but the mother doesn't just disown the baby after some minor contact. At least that's what I heard...

*Checks snopes*
Here we go:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/babybird.asp