Friday, June 19, 2015

horry-fing...

...experience, when I went to vacuum out my car earlier today. I went up to Harris county on Thurs. morning to salvage some plastic containers to put the plants in that I dug up yesterday. Had put out an email to fellow gardening fanatics hoping someone would have some empty pots to give away. I'd recently gotten in the right frame of mind to say: Begone! and put a big stack of stuff in the recycling bin. And, as you would expect, Murphey's Law (along with gravity) is still in effect. So as soon as the truck came and took all the stuff I wanted out of my life, I began wishing I had not been so ruthless.

On the way back to the house from the early morning trip up to get containers, I stopped in the road to pick up a small box turtle meandering across from the back side of the golf course towards a subdivision. Thinking I was doing a good deed, and saving the small reptile from certain smooshing. With the intention of taking it down the hill, into the wooded area behind our house and setting it out where it would be safe, and hopefully enjoy a long, pleasant, fecund life, with all the others I have rescued over the years.

But I promptly forgot about the rescue job when I got home and started digging, planting, repotting. So the turtle spent the night in my car.  As in completely totally forgotten. Fortunately, there seem to be no ill effects to due neglect.

Even More Fortuitous: My inclination, out of the blue, to decide I should vacuum out my car this morning. Where upon I found the accidently MIA turtle. What would have likely occurred had I not been rooting around under the seats and found the forgotten guest? Yeah - 'something really bad, like unexpected demise. And seriously bad odor.

As it turned out, I had vacuumed inside 3/4 before I got to the drivers ' door, where I went to poke the hose down between the seat and door-sill, and said: Hmmm... what is that? And then I said: 'Yikes' and 'Eeeeeck' and possibly '$#!+'. Before realizing it was the turtle I had accidently let spend the night in my car.

Hopefully with no lasting trauma or ill effects. When I got over my shocked surprise, I went to get a flashlight to figure out which end to pick up, and got it out to take into the woods and set free. Thankful, thankful, thankful I had this random notion to clean out the car and found the little critter before some unfortunate, untimely end occurred when I would leave  my car sitting in a hot parking lot for hours, baking in the sun. A very important lesson learned for future reference by the Turtle Rescue Squad.

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