Our here in AZ you can be approved to have a desert tortoise--but the qualification process is stringent...My former brother-in-law dotes on two of them.
5
Wonderful story. I have for years admired these turtles. I found my first one at 12 years old delivering my newspaper route. The next two, one crossing a highway outside Boston Ma and the second crossing a highway in the Hamptons LI NY. Both times I stopped halted traffic and rescued the turtles. I guess we wish Frank & Fancy could start a family in your back yard. Thanks for the great story.
15
What a fine writer you are!
And you reminded me that maybe
it
is
turtles
all
the
way
down.
19
Not too far from where I live is a road between where box turtles hibernate and a wetland area that they try to reach in the spring. The people who regularly travel the road will go out in the very early morning to help as many turtles as they can safely cross the road. Other road travelers during the road crossing season will take extra care to make sure the turtles cross safely.
21
"They're turtles. It's not their job to teach me anything."
I thought I couldn't love this any more... and then you finished with the perfect final sentence. Mwah.
32
The cherry tomatoes disappeared fast. No one ate the spinach. - This made me laugh for 5 minutes! Even turtles hate spinach, lol!
26
May be the house was build on what was part of their habitat?
6
This is a pixy dust of a story that transported me to a twinkling land of childlike innocence and wonder. What better way to spend 5 lovely minutes, than to fantasize about human motives of reptiles. It's true: in our minds we really CAN fly!!
20
Dear Ms. Philpott:
Thank you for a story that gave me some peaceful happiness.
30
My wife and I have a pet Russian tortoise
She like to sun bathe, eat her veggies and walk around on our balcony in the morning
When she’s ready to come in she knocks on the door. We open it and she marches in, goes to one of her favorite spots and takes a nap.
32
Thank you for your the engaging way you tell your family's precious experience with a wild creature whom no ordinary person genuinely considers 'wild'.
We have two dogs, which often prevents wild life and other animals from approaching our home even though we live in the country side on the edge of a farmer's field and next to an old forest. It is a different story though regarding pheasants and the hunting season. The birds know that they are safe in our back yard. I've taught the dogs to just sit still and watch them. It is a small adventure of our day when it occurs.
21
Years ago we had visits from a little hedgehog. He came closer and closer each day over a 2-week period, finally venturing into the garage, right up to the door to the kitchen. I had to carry him back out into the yard. Then he stopped coming. Some time later I happened to see a report on TV about a man who actually ran a little hospital for injured or ailing hedgehogs. He explained that hedgehogs who approach humans in that way are actually in distress and looking for help. I felt so sad for my little hedgehog. Was he ill? Did he need help?
Sorry to add this sad comment but when I read your lovely story, I kept thinking of my hedgehog!
25
We have two rescued box turtles that live in a pen in our yard safe from hawks and ravens. We’ve had them for over twenty years and they were going to be food in some restaurant. We have a male, Red and his eyes and skin get very red when he’s in the mood. We also have a yellow female,Blossom. Only one egg they’ve laid has hatched, that was R2, found on May Fourth but he, she survived only about a year.
We also have a bunch of red eared sliders, the oldest of which (Irving, she’s a she) is at least 35. All of these are rescues also. I had them in my classroom for several years until the district made me take them home.
26
I loved this story. Beautifully written and conceived. Thanks for sharing.
23
"I want people to learn their lessons and change their ways and for the moral of every story to make us better as a species."
How beautifully written. Thank you, Ms. Philpott.
P.S. Personally speaking, the next time Frank or Fancy knocked, I'd let them walk in...and stay.
20
I, too, have box turtles that visit our yard, near a swampy forest in South Eastern Virginia. I wrote a children's book about them, filled with photographs--"Sally Wants to be a Scientist." Although I don't name them, I study the patterns in the shells to differentiate between them and I have several repeat visitors.
14
I like this story.
39
Turtles do not care if they are mis-gendered by humans. I am impressed by their singleness of purpose and confidence in their identity. We all would be served by emulating them a bit.
27
They like tomatoes. They come looking for me all summer in the front yard and back, for tomatoes I keep on hand in the fridge for them. Put a birdbath on the ground where they can climb into it, and they will do so to soak off the dirt when the weather gets dry.
38
I don't know what, if anything "Frank" was trying to tell you.
What I would tell you and your neighbors is PLEASE do not use pesticides or herbicides of any kind. They are killing all the "Franks".
Thank you.
52
Wonderful counsel for all of us. This woman really does not strike me as a pesticide user, though.
14
That's a great turtles song.
20
At our previous home (on several acres) we had deep pond that was the home to thousands of fish and couple dozen turtles. I bought bags of fish food and each evening would carry a pound or two of the nuggets to the water's edge. A tree stump poked up through the water that I would whack on with a stout piece of tree limb to announce that it was dinner time. (After a while this was an unnecessary act, as the vibrations of my steps had already alerted the critters and they were already churning the water in the "dining room." Only one of them was identifiable as a specific guest, a small red-eared slider with a deformed and shortened hind leg. As a result of his defect he wasn't as agile a swimmer as the competition and his efforts to glom onto a bit of food were frequently futile. I had no choice but to watch for him and to deliberately cast a handful of the brown pellets in his path, enough so that he could get his fair share of the feast.
This lasted for two seasons. The third year he was not to be seen. By nature, I'm a pessimist. But that in no way stops me from wishing the little guy/gal the best. Maybe he or she moved to the neighbor's pond. Pessimists can hope, too.
40
My friend in Massachusetts had a South American red footed tortoise named Charlie who lived in her house. During a brief supervised jaunt in the yard, Charlie disappeared from my friend’s sight. Although turtles walk slowly, you have to keep an eye on them when you take them outside because their little steps add up quickly. Two very cold winters passed and my friend assumed Charlie was dead, since South American turtles don’t handle cold weather well. Then one morning Charlie showed up at her back door!
59
My husband's aunt and uncle have two tortoises in San Diego County who live in an outdoor (heated-in-winter) home on their property who periodically come and knock on their French doors. Sometimes they get inside the house on their own and need to be found. Everyone finds their behavior charming. Provisions have been made for them to be taken care of by other family members when the aunt and uncle die as the tortoises will likely outlive them.
42
Male birds also joust with their own reflections. It’s a guy thing: self-induced concussions caused by the need for territorial defense. More evidence that testosterone alters the ability to make good decisions. Even a President who perserves his receding hair line with a testosterone receptor blocker can be driven to repetive head banging. Narcissus wisely chose water to see his reflection.
32
@Krautman Waaa?
As "we" often ask in journalism, did we read the same story? The Trump Section is above the fold, over on the left, just under the masthead. You'll find truth, justice and solace over there. Maybe even redemption.
Thank you.
8
I.
Like.
Turtles.
38
@Kevin C.
So.
Do.
I.
18
According to the Ms. Philpott: "It’s just that assigning meaning to events is so satisfying. I want themes, threads, a plot that proceeds toward resolution."
Very well said. You gotta fill in the details with your own fantasy. That's what Walt Disney did, too. He took Goethe's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', and presented it with Mickey Mouse in 'Fantasia'.
10
The message I get from turtles:
"I will accept cruelty and harm from humans, in hopes that you will then learn compassion. You're welcome."
13
If you suspected your brass kick plate was disrupting the turtles' natural behavior (and your husband's sleep) why did you not cover it with something non reflective?
23
@David Perhaps because it attracted lovely turtles?
8
People are stealing wild box turtles and selling them to the pet business with some being flown to Asia where they are exotics (I hope not for food). Haven't seen a box in the extensive woods (55 plus acres behind my house in a state preserve) in three years now. Good luck to Frank and Fancy. The dinner plate sized snapper near me is still around and eats my hostas. She (saw her lay eggs) can defend himself quite well. Good luck to a thief with her.
33
She can defend himself?
4
This story, and it is one, made me so happy. Thank you, Mary Laura Philpott.
29
Shiny things signal "water" to many animals. In California we sometimes get dragonflies dipping onto shiny car hoods, trying to lay eggs. Maybe you should build Frank a pond.
19
@Cyn-Diego - Reflection = Water... That was my thought, too. I was being driven crazy by birds knocking at my door's brass foot plate until I installed a bird bath.
13
Best “news” I’ve read in weeks!
Thanks.
23
“The world is full of gifts that you can’t control or rationalize” and your lovely piece on turtles is one of them. Thank you.
40
Thank you for sharing this wonderful article!
14
Douglas Adams might have interpreted this story slightly differently...
7
It's all turtles the whole way down, and that just keeps on going forever.
14
Thanks for a sweet essay. Eastern box turtles can live to be over 50 years old. Their numbers are dwindling along with their habitat, and too many sadistic humans will swerve to hit them use them for target practice. You are lucky to have this close encounter with nature -- so many of us think red pine trees and boxy buildings replace our deep need to live alongside other beings. I look forward to your book and the further adventures of Frank and Francie.
35
This is a good description of how to tell the difference between male and female box turtles, taken from Penn State's New Kensington's Virtual Nature Trail website:
"Males have concave plastrons, thicker based and longer tails, longer front claws, and bright red or orange eyes. Females have flat or slightly convex plastrons, short, thin tails, and dark red or brown eyes. Also, the "vent" opening (the common, "cloacal" opening of the lower digestive, urinary and reproductive tracts) in the male is typically found past the margin of the carapace while in the female it is located under the carapace edge."
7
Turtles are not personal toys. Box turtles are endangered. NEVER move them from their home environment - they will be permanently disoriented. Do not keep wildlife as "pets." God's creatures are not yours to play with. Instead, fight the destruction of woodlands where they live and where "development" projects kill countless creatures every day. Thank you.
15
Sorry, Carrie, but the skeptics among us take exception to your characterization of turtles (and any other critter crawling the planet) as "God's creatures." They evolved, just did you and I and Donald J. Trump. Now, tell me, would a "God" with any sense of right, wrong, or humor have "created" Donald Trump?
20
I’ve loved turtles my whole life - I would *die* if one came a-knocking. You were chosen. Best article of the week!
39
After reading several news articles on humans' inhumanity, greed, deception, etc., this article is both comforting and concerning. Are these turtles trying to adapt, or are they knocking on doors to solicit an end to our environmental destruction? I can't help thinking about the damage we're doing to each other and our world, and I immediately think of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," with its beautifully dreadful last stanza:
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Some days I just want to follow the turtles back into the woods.
26
To the author, re: "Several friends suggested I identify the turtles by marking their shells with nail polish, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The fun is in guessing, not knowing."
Have you *tried* knowing? If you would, you might change your mind about this. "Knowing" about nature is a product of "communicating" (in the broad sense) with nature. Yes, it's possible to communicate with animals; if you try, one thing will lead to another and it'll be WAY more than just "fun." I recommend the book "King Solomon's Ring" by Konrad Lorenz -- he knew all about it (and got a Nobel Prize, to boot).
A SMALL dab of nail polish won't harm Frank or Fancy. But the method isn't foolproof: Years ago, a friend used red nail polish to paint small, ID numbers on intertidal snails she was studying, in Panama City (Panama). The goal was to see how far individual snails traveled (among other things). But things didn't work out -- she wasn't able to find many snails again, after painting them. One day, at low tide, she found her study site inhabited by Chinese women. They were searching for the "lucky snails," which they used to determine which lottery-ticket numbers to purchase! Such are the potential joys of "knowing"!
16
@RR
That's great. Lucky snails, never heard of that :-)
4
We have had eastern box turtles around our property on Long Island as long as we’ve lived here (30 years). Tur-too was actually the first two syllable word my eldest daughter ever spoke.
Cast of characters has likely changed over the years, as I’ve found some dead ones and also witnessed a pair mating once. I varnished a shell I found and keep it on my desk. They love hosta, by the way.
17
I adore box turtles! Grew up with them in Southern Indiana. When I visited Tennessee, a few years ago, we moved a couple out of the road. Made my day to see them again after so many years (I live in a metropolis now). After all the bad news lately about the decline to our ecosystem, this story makes my heart happy.
26
I'm constantly riding my bike on the back roads of eastern NC. I've moved a lot of turtles off the road in my day. Makes me feel good. The turtles don't seem to care either way.
29
Thank you for a lovely and insightful piece. It had a no -message message, which is much harder to convey than a typical parable.
13
I had three box turtles as friends when I was a kid. We lived in Pennsylvania, but would drive to rural Maryland often to visit family. All three turtles were found along dusty roads in Maryland and brought home after my begging and crying prevailed. All three were named George. They all eventually wondered away from the backyard area where I kept them. I don't think they taught me any lessons. They were just turtles, and were probably mystified (if turtles can be mystified) by what had happened to them.
6
Eastern Box Turtles want you to know they hate being relocated. It is often a death sentence. They’ll keep searching for landmarks until they find their home again. This means crossing perilous roads and going without eating or drinking. In many states where they’re a threatened species, it’s not legal to keep them as pets and they won’t be able to reproduce.
Cute story!
5
Why assume that the Universe "doesn't know about that song" or "is definitely not sending me a sign"? According to the principles of synchronicity the Universe does know and is definitely sending you a message. I love how you are enjoying the mystery.
11
Thank you for such a beautiful holiday treat. Touching, engaging and even though reptilian - a soft fuzzy for the soul. Turtles, turtles, turtles ....
37
your writing made my morning! Delightful encounters like these are the stuff of memories and I am glad you wrote about it.
30
In 1960, I bought (for $1) from a friend who was moving, a gopher tortoise named Grasseater that was very smooth with wear from age. I suppose she was at least 40 years old at that time. We had other tortoises, and each year she would lay eggs in our sandbox. The hatchlings were almost always taken away by crows. When I moved, I gave Grasseater to my sister. Grasseater still lives in my sister's yard, probably at the ripe old age of 98 or more.
91
I've been saving turtles my whole life - moving them off the road, out of construction sites, taking them away from tormenting teens, etc. I always wish them 'good luck and good journey' when I put them in the pond or woods. I say the same to Frank and Fancy.
78
With all the daily difficult and stressful news, I welcome this story Mary Laura Philpott. Thank you very much. I have a fondness for turtles and this made my day.
66
What a neat essay. Looking forward to your book!
40
Wonderful essay. Maybe Frank and Fancy found each other and are off on an adventure together.
61