The Tortoise and the Whippet

Today I let the dogs frolic out in the back yard for a good hour--the weather is amazing and they can always use a good romp. It is very fun to watch especially as Stanley has begun his own campaign of terror---a far cry from the past where he would resolutely stand on the deck despite all of Dinah's egging and urging to play. I guess he's gotten off his high horse (finally), and now he loves to chase her around the yard in big circles until he manages to tackle her.

Well, after I got out of the shower, I could hear Dinah outside, barking like an idiot. The noise continued throughout my getting dressed, so I finally shouted out the window at her to cut it out. She did...for about 5 seconds. So out I went to investigate.

I walked across the yard to find Dinah in her butt-up-in-the-air play stance, barking and barking, and doing little dances. Finally I got down to the woods only to see that the subject of her attention was a medium-sized turtle. I actually identified it as a male Terrapene Carolina (Carolina Box Turtle) only because we had encountered some this weekend at BugFest. Well, this turtle was resolutely ignoring Dinah and trying in his best turtle-y way to tiptoe the heck out of there. There was a smorgasbord of mushrooms that he had been feasting on and I guess Dinah had ruined his lunch and was apparently trying to bark him to death.

I finally shooed her away and let him get on with his business of ridding my yard of mushrooms (sweet!) and went back inside. Later I was out there again and looked around for him, but there was no sign other than partially nibbled mushrooms everywhere. The cool thing is that he is trapped in our yard--there aren't any gaps under the fence, and it made me wonder how long he's been living in here? It's obviously like white-collar-prison between the woods and the compost heap that I augment daily with Jack's unwanted veggies. A little piece of turtle heaven I think!