"Mom! There's a tortoise in our yard!"

Earlier today I was in the house, the girls were taking naps and Dylan was outside playing. All of the sudden Dylan comes running in the backdoor, "Mom! There's a tortoise in the yard! Hurry come and see!" And then he went tearing back outside. With my curiosity peaked and a little confused I followed Dylan outside and sure enough there was a small turtle in the grass about halfway across our backyard almost to the sidewalk. He was so excited about finding that turtle. I went back in the house and found something to put the turtle in and by then Lola had come downstairs, so they were both out there putting some lettuce in the box that we had put our new little friend in and talking excitedly back and forth to each other and talking to the turtle. I sat down at the computer to figure what kind of turtle it was. I found that it was a painted turtle and it lives in the water and by the size of it it was not very old. I did found some information about keeping it as a pet, but I figured it would be best if we just took it some place that he could call home. The kids were really excited about that too. So we waited the 2 hours until daddy got home form work and as soon as he got out of the car the kids were running to him, "Daddy we found a turtle in our yard! Look he's over there in that box." And they continued to tell him all about it as he looked at me for a confirmation. I nodded and let him see for himself. After dinner we drove to a place here in town called "Heron's Hideout" It's sort of a restoration project that has a rough path and a creek running through it with lots of vegetation. As we were walking to the creek Allen was holding the box and it was like the turtle could smell the water, he was trying to climb out and just moving everywhere. When I placed the box close to the ground by the creek he lobbed out and went straight for the water. I've never see a turtle move so fast. He got to the water and he was gone. Allen didn't even get a chance to take a picture. The kids were really excited for the turtle to find his new home. Dylan had named him, and I had to ask him a few times to get this right, "Huntinghuntingsnuffin' Turtle". He said it really cute. What a fun, unexpected happening for our day!