Just Little Turtles... ?

Something happened just the other day that pretty much stopped me dead in my tracks. But it was a good thing to see. A very good thing, indeed!

There is a 10 mile stretch of rural country road that I travel each day to and from work. For the past several months - now that summer weather has settled in - about 2 or 3 times a week I would find a turtle (a small tortoise with a shell any where from about 4 to 7 inches across) somewhere in the road. Whenever I saw one, I'd stop my car, pull off on the shoulder, pick up the turtle and put him (her?) safely in the field on whichever side of the road was closest. I would always place the turtle a good 5 - 6 feet from the road, pointed in a direction away from the road (usually the direction in which the turtle was moving). And believe it or not, I have yet to see a squished turtle anywhere along the length of that road. I have also, not surprisingly, yet to see any other human being do this. Until the other day...

On the way to work one morning, I saw a turtle in the middle of the oncoming lane. I slowed down, pulled off onto the shoulder and came to a stop. Just as I was preparing to make a U-turn, I saw a mini-van approaching in that oncoming lane. I was pretty sure at this point that I would never make it to the turtle before that van! And that's when it happened. As I waited for what appeared to be inevitable, the woman driving the van slowed down and came to a stop on the shoulder not 6 feet from the turtle. THEN SHE GOT OUT OF HER VAN AND MOVED THE TURTLE TO A SAFE PLACE WAY OFF THE ROAD! I sat there for a few minutes with my jaw hanging open. I don't think she ever knew that I was watching her. Or that I was cheering her on. I watched her get back in her van and drive off before I continued on my way to work. What a great morning! Now there are two of us keeping the turtles out of harm's way on this dangerous road. Their odds of survival just doubled!

Oh, I'm sorry, did you say, "what's the big deal... so you saved a few little turtles... they're just turtles... so what"? Well, maybe they are just little turtles, and maybe it doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things, but I'm betting that God and each of those little turtles may look at it differently! And maybe the reason that woman saved a turtle is because she saw me do it on a previous morning. Okay, probably not... but maybe. Answer me this: why kill any animal if you don't have to? Or, more appropriately: why not save an animal when it is so easy to do? And if you can't see the point of these two questions... please turn in your human-race membership card. You obviously don't need it any more.

On a less sarcastic note, yes, of course I realize that this is just a "small" thing. But it is something. And isn't that what's really important? Mother Teresa once said, "We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do little things with great love." Dr. Richard Carlson, in one of his books, paraphrased it this way: "We can' t change the world, but to make the world a brighter place we don't need to. All we really have to do is focus on those little acts of kindness, things we can do right now."

Animals are entitled to our protection simply by their existence.