Dream of Brown Eyes

Frankie's hole was filled in but he kept going to it to try digging it out. I put cinder blocks all around it to stop him. Still he tries. I put more cinder blocks around his hole. Then I went out of town for five days. While I was gone, he continued to try to get to his hole. He may never quit.

Moving the cinder blocks was done without realizing that some of the blocks were keeping the box turtle enclosure intact. Mama turtle had dug a hole near the area where a cinder block was. Yesterday I had rounded all the box turtles together for a little water. When they left the water, Brown Eyes went up toward the yet unseen hole. Last night when I went to check everyone because the temperatures were going to be cold, I found the hole but could not find Brown Eyes. As far as I could tell, she had escaped into the back yard. At 11:00 pm, no light and a very large yard to search, I felt all was lost. I could hardly sleep for worrying about Brown Eyes and never seeing her again.

This morning, I got gloves and a rake and begin to go over the wooded area of the yard in search of Brown Eyes. After an hour of looking, I went back into the box turtle enclosure to put the turtles into water (it had warmed up enough). To my surprise, I found Brown Eyes. She was near her regular area but had dug in a bit so I overlooked her last night.

All is back to normal. I must work on soil for the box turtles as they crave digging and cannot. Now that the night temperatures are heading toward the 40's, soil to dig in is a priority.