Oh, the cuteness!

I had a surprise visitor in my backyard this morning. As I was watering the herbs and veggies, I heard a soft scraping noise coming from the back wall. Being in new and somewhat unfamiliar lands, I was a bit wary as to what might be causing the noise.

After staring long and hard, I finally located the source: this adorable little turtle!
He was oh so tiny, but very brave. It only took a moment of being handled before he stuck his little head back out and started walking around on my hand. I can only guess that he's a land turtle, since there aren't any lake, rivers, streams, ponds, puddles or leaky faucets around. Any guesses on what kind of turtle he is? I emailed the University of Texas at Austin with a picture, but haven't heard back yet. Update: according to UTA, this is an ornate box turtle.I tried to keep him safely in my herb garden containers until I could establish what kind of turtle he was and where would be the best place to release him. But he managed to escape the garden and is now off on his next adventure! Kinda makes me want to knit a turtle, if I could just find a pattern...


And, just because it's been a few days since I've posted pictures of the girls, here they are keeping me company while I search for jobs. Mo is getting so big so fast that it's hard for me to believe that she's less than 5 months old. Hopefully she won't get as big as Harley!