Guess What We Saw Today

I had to make a choice this morning early. Sleep or go to the ranch what will it be? Ohhh I was sleeping so good and wanted to continue but I was afraid I would miss something. Sure enough if I had stayed in that bed I would have missed it. As we were driving to the back forty John spotted something moving along the fence line. I didn't even see it. All I saw was a dried up cow patty. John said it looks like a dry land turtle . He stopped the truck and I'm awake and out in a flash. Ohhh it was so cute trying to crawl as fast as it could not knowing who or what he/she was dealing with. I got in front of it to stop it and talk to it. It was a young one and Jack I'll bet it is kin to Toby. Toby is the one that used to come near our back door about every three days when we lived at the ranch. We wrote our initials on it's back with fingernail polish and it was never afraid of us and never drew it's head into it's shell to hide. That is the last one we have seen on the place and it came to a sad dimise. When we came to the ranch to tend the cattle some renters with a young boy had just moved. We found Toby by the grain tank upside down and a stick was by his side. John had to do the unthinkable to relive his misery. The odd thing about seeing this young dry land turtle this morning was as I was feeding the turtles I was thinking how long it had been since we had seen a dry land turtle and how I have missed seeing them. I'm so glad to know there are still some around along with the horned toad we saw not long ago.