Fred the Turtle

Colton and I were driving down the highway the other day after stopping by Dollar General for some candy.  We were getting ready to pass by this road where a year ago my mom, Colton and I had found a turtle.  Colton immediately pipes up and says out of the blue, "Ma ma, that's where we found Fred."  I said, "Bubby, you are right.  That's where we met Fred."

My mom had always talked about how she would love to find a little turtle so Colton could see how they lived in their own shell.  We would look and look for one as we would be driving down different roads, but never found any.  Well one day exactly one year ago, my mom and I had stopped in the middle of the street, because we saw a little, bitty turtle trying to cross the road.  We didn't want him to be ran over and this was our perfect opportunity to let Colton see what a turtle looked like up close.  So I pulled over, went and picked up the turtle, then took it to show Colton.  He thought the turtle was great!  Long story short, I ended up taking this little turtle home with us so Colton could have his first very own pet.  He absolutely loved this little turtle and ended up naming him Fred.

We kept Fred in the back of Colton's little gator.  We wanted him to feel at home, so we got him some grass and twigs to crawl on.  I thought he might be hungry so I let Colton take him some lettuce.  Colton tried to feed him, but poor little Fred wanted no part of it.  He only stayed with us for two days, when I decided he needed to be on his own to survive, so we let Fred go and be free.  In those two days, Colton fell in love with Fred.  To this day, he still talks about how Fred the turtle used to be with us and how we had to let him go so he could live.  Funny, isn't it what kids remember an entire year later?