Turtles

Turtles often feel an urgent need to be on the other side of whatever road they may be near. Vermonters like to help them. I have seen traffic on four lane highways stop while some guy gets out of his car and helps a turtle across the road. I mentioned that to a native Vermonter and was told two things about helping turtles across the road.

1) Always move them to the side of the road to which they were headed. Makes sense. Otherwise, they just get back up on the road and try again.

 2) If you try to help a big turtle (I have seen them up to about 30lbs) , don't grab them by the sides of his shell and pick him up . His neck is longer than you think, and he will want to bite you. The proper technique is to "wheel barrel" him across the road. Lift up the back of the shell so that his back feet are off of the ground. He will try to run as fast as he can with his two from legs to get away from you thereby speeding up his crossing of the road. Again, makes sense.