I’ve been taking care of the cats at mom and dad’s house while they’re up in Buffalo. They went up to start sorting through things at my grandfather’s house, and also to visit my mom’s parents – my grandmother has been sick, and in and out of the hospital this past year. And she just had a stroke – she’s back at home now, and feeling better, but apparently her short-term memory has been affected. Hopefully that will improve over time. And according to my mom, she was feeling rather happy today because she had a lot of family around – along with my mom and dad, my aunt and uncle from Tennessee were visiting, and my cousin Kevin and his wife Kristina were there with their new baby, Savannah.
So I’ve been hanging out with Kiko and Ozzie and Dusty. Plus a few other random creatures – because mom and dad’s house tends to be an oasis for various forms of wildlife. When I went over to the house last night, I noticed some kind of large brown thing floating in the water. It clearly did not belong in the pool, and I was slightly hesitant to approach the edge of the water. But as I walked closer, I was able to see it was a large turtle – no doubt an inhabitant of the pond behind my parents’ house, who had lost its way and wandered into the only body of water it could find. But I can’t imagine chlorinated water would be good for turtles (although I wouldn’t think it would be good for birds, either – and I always see birds outside dipping their beaks into my pool. Seems like they could find a better source of water somewhere… but I suppose if you’re a bird, a big, giant, blue pool looks rather inviting…).
I figured I should find a way to remove the turtle from the pool, so I got the skimming net and attempted to scoop it up. But turtles, although rather slow on land, can swim surprisingly fast. He darted to the bottom of the pool, and stubbornly sat there, presumably holding air in his tiny little turtle lungs. (Tiny little turtle lungs that can hold onto oxygen for a really long time…) And of course he settled on the bottom of the deep end, about as far away from me as he could get. I had to use the pole extender on the skimmer to get close to him. But then, instead of swimming away again, the poor turtle (who no doubt thought he was under attack from some new breed of predator) pulled himself into his shell and wouldn’t move. He was, at this point, like a big rock at the bottom of the pool, which I was able to buoy with the skimmer net and pull out of the water. That turtle was surprisingly heavy… I placed him over by the fence, in an area where there was some space underneath, and tried to point him in the direction of the marshy area behind mom and dad’s house. Of course, seeing as he refused to come out of the shell, it was hard to tell if I was pointing him head-first or tail-first… I’m pretty sure it was head-first…
And although he never DID come out of that shell while I was over at the house, he was gone this morning. And no, he wasn’t back in the pool… so I can only hope he made it back to wherever he came from in the first place. So now the only thing in the pool is a dead scorpion and bunch of worms… (we’ve had a lot of rain…)
Mom keeps cat food outside for a bunch of stray “outside cats” that have taken refuge in the backyard, so I’m always sure to refill the dishes on the porch when I’m over at the house. But this morning, after I filled the food dishes (and after I made sure the turtle was gone), another animal climbed up on the porch and helped itself to the food. It was a possum, which I thought was rather strange – aren’t possums nocturnal? Shouldn’t that possum have been sleeping somewhere, saving up its energy for a nighttime hunt? (A nighttime hunt that apparently ends with cat food at my parents’ house?) Was it a possum with insomnia? Was it cramming for some sort of possum final exam? I never know what I’m gonna see over at that house…
Which reminds me… I should take the camera over tonight… just in case…
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