What's in your backyard?

While I was out and about Sunday night I got a call from home on my cell phone, although didn't realize it until an hour or so later. I called John back and asked if there was something he needed. He decided to let me find out what he had called about when I got home and was very vague except that they took pictures for me to see. That certainly peaked my curiosity!

I assumed that there was some type of mess made and wasn't sure I wanted to know what had happened. It turns out that they found something in our yard or rather, Lincoln found it and was barking non-stop at it until George went to check it out. He told John, "Daddy, I think you are going to want to look at this!"

A snapping turtle, and not just a little one, was in our yard! The closest water is 1/2 mile down the road in a spring so what it was doing here is a mystery.

John called the sherrif's department to find out if there is someone that removes large turtles and they have never had that request but gave him a number to call but being a Sunday night that was pointless. He said he got a strange feeling just looking at it but he was not going to let it stay in our yard. So he put a large plastic bin tipped to the side next to the turtle then took his long roof shovel to keep the distance between him and the turtle and began to push at it to try and get it in the bin. That turtle jumped about a foot and was also knocking or snapping at the shovel. In the end John was able to give it a big shove into the bin which in turn flipped up-right. He popped the lid on it and he had George give him a hand carrying it down the road to let it out into the woods.

And I missed all of the fun! We have had other animals appear in our yard in the past... deer, cats, skunks, and you may remember this post about a dead fox. I wonder what will be next. Although I am not sure I want to find out!