Myrtle Turtle!

**momoffuzzyfaces** · 05-23-2011, 01:37 PM

Myrtle what a beauty you are!!!

You are a girl after my own heart. I love tomatoes fresh off the vine too. I hope you will have plenty of them to feast on this summer.

Congratulations, sweetie, on being our very special Pet of the Day!!!

**lizbud** · 05-23-2011, 05:19 PM

Hello Myrtle,

I am amazed how beautiful your shell is. Looks like a peice of artwork.

Enjoy your special day as our PET OF THE DAY.

**KentuckyJim** · 05-23-2011, 06:02 PM

Dear Friend,
Thank you for sharing your precious little box turtle with us. Mytle's an attractive turtle, indeed, with her pretty yellow spots and markings. She has a broad range of veggies and fruits to eat, too.
Back in the early 1980's, I was a sales rep for a glass company here in Lexington, Kentucky where I live and part of my territory included Hazard, KY in Eastern Kentucky. There is a very winding road going up the side of a small mountain (small in comparison to the Matterhorn in the Alps) to an old hotel called "La Citadel". I used to like to drive up there for the view whenever I went to Hazard, that and to stop at a special place on the side of the road over-looking a steep cliff, a place for those who wanted to stop and pray for a while. It was a peaceful place and I can still remember the last day I was there, with fog rolling in from the valleys. It was a very beautiful place to spend a few minutes alone. I wish I had a photo of that scene but it's engraved in my memory, which is nearly as good.
Anyway, on the way back down, I found a young box turtle in the road. Many turtles of all kinds end up being road kill if left in the road and since it was a safe place to stop, I picked up the little turtle, which hissed at me a little as it pulled it's head into it's shell, trying to scare me and stop me from eating it right there (poor little thing...that's the best defenses it had. It didn't know my intentions at all...). I had a small cardboard box in the trunk of the car and put the little turtle in it and went on down the hill. I had intended to put him out in a safe place as soon as I found one but the more I drove, the more I thought about turning him loose in my back yard at home. I had heard of people who had a "back yard turtle" before so I named him "Murphy" and put him in a big patch of day lilies in our back yard and wished him well. I went two years without seeing him, until I found him, of all places, out in the street in front of my house. I put him in the back yard again and that was the last time I saw him. We had a LOT of bushes in our back yard, with plenty of places to hide. I hope he did well. I think it's possible Murphy could still be alive somewhere in that neighborhood, from which we moved in May, 1998. Perhaps I should have took him out to the country to turn him loose but there's no guarantee anywhere one put him that he wouldn't eventually find his way onto a road again. Anyway, my friend, I thought I'd share Murphy with you.
Thank you for sharing Myrtle with us. You have a very nice little box turtle with a really cute name.
May the Lord bless and keep you always, and to make His Face to shine upon you and give you peace. May His Love and Joy fill your heart.
My love to all in Jesus, my Lord and Savior,
Jim Grayson
Lexington, Kentucky
USA