Special Guest

Gotta love the Florida wildlife!! Living near the water gives us the opportunity to get up close and personal with a lot of different critters. This gal stopped by yesterday for a bit and put on quite a show that none of us had ever seen before. For some reason she thought that the best spot to lay her eggs was right in our yard just 10 feet from our front door. We thought this was odd but we figured that she must know what she's doing so we gave her some privacy and watched from the window.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what kind of turtle this is, but they look so similar. I'm guessing just a Common Cooter or River Cooter. She's a beauty.

We watched as she first dug a hole, then layed about 16 eggs and finally gently covered them up. This all took about 20 minutes and then... she was off and running again.Jaret and Ethan had some bonding time before saying goodbye.

We may see some hatchlings 60 to 90 days from now!
thinking. If a turtle can find its way up into my front yard, then what's stopping the alligators!! :)

This whole thing brings back sweet memories of our little guy we called "Turkey". He was a Red-Ear Slider that we had since it was a baby the size of half-dollar. By the time Turkey reached this size(after a few years), caring for him became extremely difficult...very messy. It was a hard decision, but we found him a good home and I vowed never to do the turtle thing again!