"...chase a turtle back to the ocean..."

This post is long overdue... A little while ago, Anna came running into the living room yelling, "Mommy, there's a turtle outside!" It had rained a bunch recently and so I believed her, since turtles wander up our way when things flood. We live across the street from a field/lake that is used mainly for drainage...not recreation. But there are things that live in and around the water, no less. When Anna told me about the turtle, I'm thinking, "it must have gotten really lost if it's in our yard or in the street close to our house! Maybe we should take it back to, at least, across the street so it can wander it's way home." So I asked Anna to show me the turtle out her window. She took me into her room and pointed through the glass. I looked.... I looked all in our front yard...nothing. I looked up and down the street...nothing. I looked in the neighbors' yards...nothing. I said, "Anna, where is the turtle?" She pointed out, her finger raised much higher than I thought it would be to point to something very close. I looked out passed the curb and across the street and searched. There, about 50 yards from the edge of the curb across the street in the field was a microscopic speck with very subtle movement. It was the turtle. How in the world she found him is baffling to me, but that's Anna. She has senses that are off the charts. She can smell, see, feel, touch things with such sensitivity. So we got shoes on and walked the half a mile (not really) out to see the turtle, who was in no immediate danger and was actually about halfway home anyway. We got to him and Anna says, "Mom, we should chase the turtle back home to the ocean." Poor girl. The sad little drainage lake is the closest to the ocean that she's ever been...which is fine by me. She'll get there soon enough and I don't feel THAT sorry for her. ;) The turtle sucked himself into his shell when we walked up on him. Anna waved and talked to him...she told him to go home. She picked some thing for him to eat and some flowers for herself. And we went back home. She sat next to her window and watched the speck slowly waddle back to the water...