I am in New Hampshire visiting my mum and it is sunny and warm and so full of familiar fragrances. I am loving the short walk to her place from my hotel, but today as I drove there this morning, I stopped the car to see a huge snapping turtle in the middle if the road. After I had stopped, several cars also stopped to see what was going on. Quite the commotion on a quiet country back road! I got out if the car and tried to gently nudge the turtle’s shell, which upon noticing the spikes on its tail, wondered if it might be a Snapping turtle…. with my foot so it would carry on across the road but it didn’t like that and puffed up ready to defend itself. I figured I could out run it if it turned on me (but maybe that was rabbit- thinking ) Finally one brave soul got out of his car, gingerly picked it up with both hands keeping on its back side and brought it to the other side of the road where it seemed to be headed. He (the guy) never said a word, pure new England stoicism…. Right then and there. You gotta love it. It was a snapping turtle and now is likely lolling around terrorizing its neighbors in the nearby pond. And now I can feel a new joke coming on ….

From spiky tail to nose it’s about 1 1/2 feet Huge guy!