For some reason a painted turtle made it's way into our yard this evening and my husband managed to see it scooting through the grass in our front yard and caught it. There are plenty of ponds near us but there are at least two streets the turtle would have to cross to get to them, not to mention quite a few blocks of trespassing through yards. So after the kids' baths they got to inspect the surprise visitor, although I seemed to be the only one the turtle hissed at, and then we set off on a little road trip to take our turtle friend, now named Turtley, to his/her new home! After we let him/her go Turtley kept an eye on us for a long time and only after a couple of minutes completely disappeared into the water - I think that was a pretty cool Thank-You.
Turtley's new home!!
Turtley swimming and looking at us. And even as the mosquitos bit us we waited until he went underwater before we left :)