What to do when you see a turtle crossing the road

*FILE – Turtles have places to be and things to see. Did you really have to put a road right there? (Source: Pexels)*

Help it, of course!

I did that this morning while on the way to the farmer’s market. I stopped, put on the hazard lights, got out, gently grabbed it on both sides of its shell and took it where it was headed. It was a decent sized turtle, not a mammoth but certainly not the babies I’ve seen before at my mom’s house.

Luckily, it was not a busy road, and the folks in the Jeep behind me thanked me! My good deed for the day.

Here are more tips if you encounter a turtle in the road, courtesy of the Turtle Rescue League. The shelled babies are busy doing turtle things from April to October — basically getting down, making the turtle with two backs, that sort of beautiful thing, and it sometimes require crossing one of our noisy, deadly roads –these roads with which we scar the planet. We can really be the worst sort of creatures sometimes.

Possums are worth saving, too

*Would you really shoot this precious being? (Image by Scott from Pixabay)*

Despite what my neighbor thinks, opossums are well worth having around, according to the Humane Society. He’s threatened to shoot any possums he sees in his yard, even though they perform a worthwhile service of ridding the world of worse vermin like bugs and rats.

He, a boomer, associates them with rats, and like a true “American” deals with some problems with force rather than live and let live. When I found a possum in my yard on Christmas, I called it “Christmas” and tried to keep it and my dog separate. (The poor thing was rather sheepish.)

Hopefully, possums will stay well away from my neighbor’s yard. Let the rats have it!

Note: Not all boomers are problematic, and I loathe ageism. But that generation has gained a reputation for unfortunate tendencies.

Kimberly L. Wright