Meet Odysseus

Painted Turtle, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

I spotted him last night in the middle of a very busy road on my drive home from work. He resembled an oval lump and wasn't moving. Still, something told me the lump wasn't a rock, shoe, or toy. Otis looked at me strangely as I screeched to a halt and turned my car around to take a closer look. Could that really be a turtle in the road?

Painted Turtle Belly, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

I must have been quite a spectacle as I, wearing a black skirt and red wedge sandals, stopped traffic to chase at turtle out of the street. Since there aren't any bodies of water nearby, I couldn't just put him back in his natural habitat. I emptied a plastic bin I had in my trunk, and put little Odysseus inside and brought him to our house nearby.

Painted Turtle Head Markings, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Jeff grew up in Florida, where reptiles like turtles aren't exotic as they are here in the Northwest. At ease with the wild critters, my husband set up the little guy with a shallow dish of water and a dry towel to keep him comfortable.

Then we called P.A.W.S. A wonderful woman there talked us through identifying the turtle as a Western Painted Turtle, which is a Washington native. She told us to bring him up for the staff naturalist to examine in the morning.

Tomorrow: Little Odysseus Goes Home