The Turtle

When I was working at the stable at the Honeymoon Resort, our trail passed a small lake at the top of a steep hill. It then wound down the hill to a marshy area with a pond in the middle of the marsh. Every year large snapping turtles would travel from the lake, down the trail, to the pond to lay their eggs and back to the lake. One year, as I was descending the hill with a group of riders behind me, I came upon a turtle “blocking” the trail. By “blocking” I mean it was so large it completely covered the trail. There was no way the horses could step over it or go around it. I got off my horse and managed to get the turtle to “snap” onto a branch. I then dragged it off the trail. The horses walked past the turtle at the side of the trail. That is, all except one horse. He stopped beside the turtle and stared at it as though it was a horse-eating beast. Very cautiously he edged around the turtle and continued down the trail. By the time we returned up the trail, the turtle was nowhere to be seen. The cautious horse still had to stop at the offending spot and peer cautiously into the underbrush before edging past the area. For the next week or more this horse would stop at the turtle crossing and peer into the underbrush before continuing down the trail.

When I returned to the stable, I told the other guide about the gigantic turtle. Knowing one of the resort’s maintenance men con-tiniously talked about making turtle soup, the guide walked out, found the turtle and carried it back to the barn. It turned out the maintenance man had that day off, so we printed his name on the turtle’s back with magic marker. When we left for the night, we put the turtle in the claw footed bathtub we used to water the horses. The next morning, much to our surprise, the turtle had climbed out of the tub. We could see the trail it left going back to the lake. The maintenance man was informed, “there’s a turtle out there with your name on it.”