Chapter 8 – The Summer ends
Caring for turtles was fun. Saving them from being crushed on the highway was serious business. As September came and the weather cooled the children realized that the turtles needed to be returned to the wild before winter came. Turtles need to store fat in their bodies for hibernating through the long winter. If they do not find a place in the forests or near a creek, they would not live through the winter months. Most box turtles stop eating before they hibernate. They will dig under fallen logs or into wetland muds or bury themselves in leaf litter on the edge of forest floors. There they will stay and sleep until the springtime.
The turtles also knew it was time to hibernate.
One day Tracy was found missing from the pen. The children searched the neighborhood asking the other kids if any had removed a turtle from the pen but no one knew a turtle was missing. Looking in the backyard, they found Tracy in a corner. This happened 4 days in a row and it made no sense. Dad was sure that someone in the neighborhood was letting Tracy out of the pen. Katie said, “Dad, maybe the turtle climbed out!” Dad said, “Turtles can’t climb that way, Katie. Turtles don’t climb fences. Did you ever see one in a tree? After all, turtles were made to creep along the ground.”
Even though he did not believe that turtles could climb, Dad set up an experiment. We were to get up early in the morning, at the crack of dawn, and go down to the pen and watch. The next day Dad got the kids up early. They went out in the cold September air and watched the turtles as the sun rose. As daylight broke, Tracy climbed out of the pond and circled the cage. He stopped at one corner, cocked his head to look up at the cage, and began to climb. He climbed using his long claws and when he reached the top of the thin wire fence, he pulled his body up with his front legs. Then he tilted his body over the fence and let gravity do the rest. His body fell over the outside of the fence while two claws hung onto the wire. Hanging in the air, Tracy then let go of the fence and dropped to the ground. Michael shouted, “Turtles do climb fences!” Sure enough, they had proven that turtles do climb fences. Tracy began to march to the back of the yard. Dad was amazed. “What a smart turtle,” he said.