Softshell Turtle Rescue

     Over the last few days I finished a rough draft of the October BTN online newsletter. I took this over as the last one is a year old. I never though working with animals would push me to become more computer literate. I've learned how to save a document in several versoins of WORD. I've leaned how to save pictures in different levels of pixalation, both with my camera, my computer and now my "smart" phone.
     At the hospital I helped put up a tarp on the Screech Owl cage to prepare for a coming rain storm. I worked on a Armadillo's wound. Flies had laid eggs which now had become maggots. I delicately picked off every one with of them with tweezers after drowning them with mineral oil.
     In nature I see beauty and I see horror. Animal rehab is not for the faint hearted. Someone asked me one time, "What difference does it make if you save one turtle off the road?" I told them, "To that turtle it made all the difference."

     I was returning from recycling a car load of cardboard from Back to Nature when I spotted this 8 inch Softshell Turtle in the middle of Reasearch Parkway Road in Orlando. I drive down this road often, because I often see Penninsula Cooter Turtles trying to cross the road here. It was unharmed. :)
    (Three Days Later) This little Softshell Turtle stayed with me for a few days. It wouldn't eat live goldfish. On the last day, I took it to work and to an environmental meeting. Twenty or so people got a close look at it and took pictures. After that I put it into Lake Mills which is a nice clean swampy lake.