It was pouring rain around 2PM today and I had walked up front to take a break. Heard a very loud clap of thunder so I looked out to wait for the lightning strike and saw a large snapping turtle sauntering right down the center of the busy access road into our complex.

Yelled out to Wolfie to come take a look, and he grabbed a pair of gloves and ran out in the rain to pick it up, but every time he grabbed it, the turtle stretched out it's neck and tried to bite him! Must have picked it up and dropped it 12 or 14 times before he ran back in and grabbed an old plastic snow shovel to scoop it up with. In a downpour with heavy lightning all around, mind you!!

Pretty good size turtle,too. Shell is about 14" long and 8 1/2 to 9" wide, weighs 5 1/2 to 6 lbs. Could easily be 25 to 30 years old.

Aggresive little SOB

And very,very quick to strike!!

If you're one of those folks that think all turtles are slow, stay away from these guys!! Their necks can easily extend 2/3rds of their shell length in a millisecond and those powerful jaws can instantly remove thumbs and/or fingers!!

Got him back up on the shovel, thought I'd take one more shot, and he came right at me!! Guess he'd had enuff of us and wanted to be on his way!!

Wolfie carried him(on the shovel,of course)back across the road and sat him down in the tall weeds by the creekbank. We had had enuff of him,too!!!lol

Never a dull moment!!