Chapter 2
Over the next month, as the spring rains filled the creek again and again, the sun would dry and warm the road. More turtles came out of hiding to warm up. Dad collected the turtles and brought them home. Every turtle was different. Some had black shells with yellow dots. Other turtles had black shells with yellow stripes. Some had yellow shells with black stripes and some had black shells with orange stripes or dots or swirls. Some had orange shells with black stripes.
Some turtles had red eyes and some had orange eyes. The children read about the box turtle and learned that the male turtles have red eyes and the female turtles have orange-brown eyes. Some turtles had very round shells and others were more flat. Some turtles were large and some were small. Some were young and others old. Each turtle was so different they just had to name each one. Here are the names they used:
Tracy - a big boy turtle and very strong
Teresa - a girl turtle who blinked her eyes a lot
Tom - a boy turtle with orange stripes
Timmy - a very old turtle who was wise and kind
Tina - a small turtle but a fast turtle
Trixie - a shy turtle
Truman - a funny turtle who loved to eat worms
Tyler - a turtle with a flat shell
Trudy - a girl turtle with red on her cheeks
Tigger - a turtle with yellow and black stripes like a tiger
Todd - a handsome turtle with a very long neck
Tiny – the baby turtle.
Altogether, there were twelve turtles. Twelve turtles with turtle names that all began with the letter T.
You can imagine that no cardboard box was big enough to hold these turtles. Turtles are not used to living so close together. They like big forests and wide fields and creeks nearby to drink from. It was also hard to know if all of them got enough food at feeding time. So, the children decided the turtles needed a new home.