Saturday, August 3, 2013

Letting Go

Sometimes life makes you deal with things whether you want to or not.  Sometimes you have no time to prepare.  Things happen, you react, and life goes on.

We recently had to say goodbye to Mr. Bumps the turtle.  He is well and healthy as far as we know.  After a particularly hard rainstorm, we went to check on him.  His habitat was flooded, overflowing with water.  We searched all through it to make sure he wasn't drowned.  He was no where to be found.  He must have escaped.  My son was in pieces.  He knew we were going to eventually let him go, but on our terms, with a farewell and good luck to send him on his way.

We were lucky enough to have raised him for 2 years.  He is old enough to be on his own.  He just started eating plants in addition to worms and slugs.  He is off on an adventure.  Off to see the world.  Box turtles are known to return to the place where they were born, which happens to be our back yard.  We will be looking for you Mr. Bumps and hope that one day we shall meet again.

Until then, happy trails!

3 comments:

  1. I'm sorry that you weren't able to say goodbye...There is nothing harder than that....Here is hoping that you all see him again in your backyard! What a lucky turtle to have had such a great home!

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  2. Oh, that made my throat grip. How very sad ... It's so hard to part ways without a proper goodbye, especially when you've formed a bond and life steps in to snag that away. We've lost our fair share of pets here (wild and otherwise), including a turtle. I hope your son feels a little brighter in remembering his pal. xx

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  3. I used to babysit for some people down the street. One time when I came in they had a whole aquarium and turtle set up that had not been there before. When I asked them if they got a new pet they said no and explained. They had a pet box turtle 5 or more years ago and they would occasionally set it out on their fenced in patio and let it roam. One time someone forgot to close the gate and the turtle was gone. Fast forward years later, the husband was mowing in the yard and noticed what looked like a really cool rock sticking out of the lawn. He looked closer and found it was their pet turtle's shell. Better yet, the turtle was still alive and attached to it's shell, it was just hibernating under ground! It was cool that they got their pet back but also kinda sad that the turtle had escaped and was free, just to be returned to a captive aquarium.

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