Our Prehistoric Visitor Returns
Last year I wrote about our special visitor, Shelley, who has appeared in our driveway around Memorial Day for the past three years to lay her eggs in the exact same spot. Shelley, to introduce her once again, is a large snapping turtle with a muddy, mossy shell and a long jagged tail. In my ignorance the first year she came I tried to save her from getting run over, while all the time unbeknownst to me, she was trying to find the right spot on the side of the road to lay her eggs. Good-natured, she took my meddling in stride and only gently snapped once after the third time I had returned her to the marsh out in back of our house in a snow shovel. Only then did I realize what she was up to. Shelley communicated simply and without malice. Shelley was a class act.
(Click on all photos to enlarge)
Every year, according to some inner time mechanism, Shelley would come early in the morning to lay her eggs in the swale in the corner of our driveway. A big snapper, she, majestic in her reptilian grandeur. Her shell measured (yes, we measured it) 13 inches, but like all snappers her head juts out of the shell about 4 inches and her spiked, dinosaur-looking tail adds on another 5 inches or so.
This year we checked our driveway early each morning worrying as trucks barreled by dangerously close to where she has laid her eggs in the past. Days went by. No Shelley. Judging by the size of her shell and the speed of her gait, Shelley was not young. Each year we saw her Shelley was walking slower and slower. We wondered if she made it through the winter.
In addition, in the early spring her pond was dug up and drained by the new owner to make it deeper and with each dig of the steam shovel we imagined our snapper being snapped up.
Memorial Day came and went and each day was sunny. Shelley liked overcast days to lay her eggs. The very last day of May was a perfect day for laying eggs, overcast and humid. We checked our driveway. No Shelley. We checked up and down the road. No Shelley. My husband didn’t say anything but disappointment and worry were written on his face. I was feeling worried, too.
We held our breath and waited. And then…
We first noticed her at 6:30 in the morning and watched her as she spent the next 3 hours or so looking for a suitable spot to lay her eggs, digging a hole for them, and then depositing them in the hole. She picked the same spot she picks every year after much mulling around and searching.
It was a delight to see those mighty claws dig a deep hole and then the back feet dig deeper. She rested for awhile and we took pictures which she did not seem to mind. Then we left to give her privacy and the back of her rocked from side to side as she deposited the eggs.
Normally she takes a hair-raising walk crisscrossing a somewhat busy road and I accompany her to make sure no car hits her. But this year she surprised us yet again and took the safer route across our back yard, after a few false starts (stopping at our front door).
Though she could have taken an easier route in our yard, she followed a stream in back of our house following a logic that has worked for 200 million years. Maneuvering over large rocks and crawling between crevices that looked impossibly narrow, we were not sure she could make it home and were wondering how we would rescue her.
We were the fools. She arrived triumphantly and magnificently in her exhausted state in the marsh on our side of the pond and quickly submerged herself under the mud until she was no longer visible, a living submarine.
After her departure we felt sad. We can only assume this brave lady made it home to her now-deeper pond having survived despite the hand of man and the worry of her next door neighbors. The brilliant naturalist and “turtle man”, David M. Carroll, explains the tinge of sadness we felt after seeing Shelley lay her eggs when he writes in his Self-Portrait with Turtles: a Memoir: “The furtive turtles were utterly silent in their nesting, but the sandy fields and road edges somehow seemed to go quiet with their departure.” Shelley’s departure meant a break in our one-sided bond with her and David Carroll sheds light so poetically on our experience of loss when he writes of his relentless study of turtles: “Through these children of the sun’s dialogue with the earth I could continue to pass out of human time and place and enter the soul of the seasons.” That was Shelley’s gift to us.
Welcome to samples of my work in various art forms showcasing “Eye-locks and Other Fearsome Things.” “Eye-locks” is a Bipolar/Asperger’s memoir in narrative form that describes the triumph of love over mental illness.
MOONSIDE 
This is such an endearing turtle story! I love that you watch over his journey and concern yourself with his welfare. Several years ago when my daughter was aggressively weeding a narrow strip of pachysandra, she was shocked when she pulled out a huge snapper by the tail. It must have journeyed from the river a half mile away where he was returned.
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June 2, 2023 at 3:05 PM
Yes, this snapper was about 1/2 a mile away from her new home.
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June 2, 2023 at 6:50 PM
A fascinating and touching story about a turtle that has become your own. Thanks for sharing.
We are close to the theme of the relationship with the turtle. Described in my post: https://1ubit.me/2019/04/17/%d1%87%d1%83%d0%b4%d0%b5%d1%81%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b5-%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%b2%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%89%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b5-%d0%b1%d0%bb%d1%83%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b9-%d1%87%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bf%d0%b0/
Return of the Prodigal Turtle
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June 3, 2023 at 5:15 AM
Sorry– just saw your comment now. Yes, our posts are of similar theme. Contgratulations to you for having a prodigal turtle!
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July 2, 2023 at 5:39 PM
It is joyful to discover something similar in relation to the world. Thanks for reading our story. There is some overlap of emotional impulses.
Have a good mood!
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July 2, 2023 at 8:26 PM
So sorry for missing your comment from a long while so. We were both blessed.
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July 2, 2023 at 8:35 PM
Let the turtles please us in the future, and also please various other living beings. May communication with animals and people make us happy. 🌞
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July 3, 2023 at 1:07 AM
😊
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July 3, 2023 at 7:52 AM
Beautiful story of turtle Shelley .
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June 3, 2023 at 1:10 PM
Thanks so much!! Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
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June 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM
This is such a stunning picture of life, survival, and the gentle passing of things we so easily miss and should appreciate. I love your poetic phrasing of Shelley and her journey. This really touched my heart. Thanks, El.
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June 5, 2023 at 10:42 AM
You spoil me with your kindness. Shelley was such a joy. I kept trying to move her away from the road in a snow shovel. I later heard she could have taken my arm. But she was so good natured about my trying to help. God spoke to me through snapping turtle. Thanks for visiting and your lovely comment. It means a lot. I think you are a most extraordinary person!
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June 5, 2023 at 9:17 PM
El, you’re pretty extraordinary yourself. I love how you interact with the world around you. You see things differently than others do–it’s an incredible gift, my friend,
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June 7, 2023 at 5:57 PM
That’s really an awesome thing to say. A gift. I have to think about that. I always think of the negative side of being “different.”
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June 7, 2023 at 6:20 PM
Different is good. Variety is wonderful. We’re too committed to living in a cookie-cutter world that can only end up boring. You are the spice in it all, El.
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June 11, 2023 at 3:27 PM
Hi Dayle, you are so kind!! I guess that is one way of looking at it. Finally in old age I can somewhat see the value in being different. And the blog was part of that growth. Thank you so much!!
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June 12, 2023 at 3:29 PM
Amazing story. I love it.
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June 14, 2023 at 8:59 PM
Thank you so much!! It was amazing to be close to Shelley!🙏🏽
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June 14, 2023 at 9:45 PM
I’ve also had a turtle in my garden…not a snapper…but until you mentioned it in your lovely story, I did not realize it, but she does show up in my garden every year, around the same time. I guess she is also laying her eggs nearby. I also tried to move her, but she always returns to the same spot🙃
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June 27, 2023 at 8:42 PM
You, too have been blessed with a turtle!! I just wish they wouldn’t lay their eggs so close to the road.😊🙏🏽
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June 27, 2023 at 9:29 PM
😂😅
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June 28, 2023 at 12:55 PM
😊
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June 28, 2023 at 1:05 PM
Amazing story of a unique turtle. Glad you have the pictures to help us see and experience her journey. What a delight. ❤️
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July 6, 2023 at 6:10 PM
Thank you so much!! Glad you liked the pictures and story! 💖🙏
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July 10, 2023 at 12:30 PM
This is really a wonderful encounter and an exciting story, Ellen. In Germany, turtles are only found in zoos and pet shops. If someone would like to have a turtle at home, they can buy one there.
Thank you for this Amazing story!
Greetings from the beautiful Rhine-Highlands / Germany…😀 🌺🌺
Rosie
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August 15, 2023 at 4:12 AM
Hi Rosie, yes it was a wonderful encounter. Glad you liked it. Thank you!😊💕
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August 15, 2023 at 9:08 AM
💖
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August 15, 2023 at 9:13 AM