Prose & Comments: The 18 foundlings
BY NELL LOWELL
It was Saturday, Hurricane Irene was set to arrive that evening and into Sunday. I was running around trying to clean up the yard and running my girls, Libby, 15, and Hayley, 11, to a friend’s house. As I arrived back home to get some items to bring to the Recycling Center, I told my boys, Henry, 6, and Luke, 9, to stay in the car while I loaded it up.
Henry immediately jumped out of his seat, opened the door, and shouted, “Turtles!”
We have seen a turtle in our yard once or twice before but this was totally unexpected. He ran over to the side of our house, right below the great big picture window, and he stopped and stared at five baby turtles. They were covered in dirt but were moving quite well. My son Luke found the hole from which they had come. It was a tiny hole that seemed shallow because it was caved in. As I felt around in the hole, I could tell the dirt was loose enough for the turtles to dig out.
Luke was immediately worried about the turtles and how they would survive the hurricane. I was worried about how they would get to a pond. Either pond they chose in our neighborhood meant that they would have to cross the road. Years back, I had seen several baby turtles killed by cars down at Coecles Harbor as they tried to cross the road. My children and I did not want to see that happen again.
We happened to have a very large fish tank in the garage. We cleaned it out and created a habitat for the baby turtles that would mimic the outdoors. We put the five turtles in there and I continued to clean up for the storm and was finally ready to head to the Recycling Center. As I walked out to the car. I saw another turtle! I knocked on the window and told Luke he had to keep watch for any other turtles. When I came back, he ran up to the door and I asked, “Are there any more?” He said 12 more! I couldn’t believe it! We had 18 baby turtles!
The storm was approaching and we were happy that the turtles were safe and sound.
The storm came and went and we were falling in love with those baby turtles. We fed them lettuce, apples and strawberries. We gave them tub time as well. We would fill up the tub with about an inch of water and let them roam around. They were so cute but we knew it was time to release them.
Libby, Hayley, Luke and Henry said their good-byes and their father drove all of them down to the pond near Crescent Beach. They were joined by the Labrozzi family. After searching for a nice place to let them go, they decided that Ice Pond would be an easier location. Libby, Hayley, Luke and friend Nicholas (who loves turtles) carefully took out each of the 18 turtles and watched some walk toward the water while others walked into the grass and buried themselves under leaves.
We will never forget those baby turtles and are happy that they are safe.
