Jack and I found a turtle in the woods in Clay County on Friday afternoon. We brought it back to show William. I just knew he would be sooo excited to see it and play with. On Saturday night we got scared it wouldn’t have anything to eat in the box we had it in so we released it. I was sad that William wasn't going to get to see it but felt better that it would survive in its new neighborhood.
On Wednesday afternoon I was running and as I finished and rounded the corner I noticed the gray box (like a cable or electrical box in the field across from our house) looked broken. Then I saw what I thought was a turtle. It was the same one!
I immediately text Sarah and Jack. Sarah called and her, William and baby Gat came over. William named him Tim the Turtle. He tried to call Tim like a dog.(Imagine two year old voice "here tur-tle, come here tur-tle") and get Tim to talk back to him (same voice "why you not talk Tim? Talk to me"). Very entertaining.
He didn't want to be close to it but he did finally pet his back. We did evetually put him back exactly where we found him and went to the pond to look at the "fishies". As we walked back to the house we told Tim "nite-nite" it was time to take a nap. Just in case you wondered "Tim the tur-tle has tur-tle toiys that he takes a nap with."
There is a sad ending to this sweet story of reuniting. Later that night Tim met the bottom side of a tire. We think (since we know so much about Turtles) that Tim was coming back to our yard because it was familiar. It was a sad evening in the Armstrong house when we realized that Tim had gone on to greener woods and prettier ponds. We decided not to tell William about this unfortunate event. We just told him that Tim found a new home.
The craziest thing though - when I went outside the next Friday a stuffed turtle was on my porch. It had a note to "Please give to William. -Tim the Turtle". I took it to William that day and he seemed thrilled. Tim went to the beach with him that weekend and has found a spot on his bed beside Gerry the Giraffe and Dog.
We will miss you Tim (the real one) but we are thankful for the reminder (the stuffed one).
