The Forest Mulcher Guy turned off his engine and leaped out of the cab.

He ran at high speed toward the pond.

Moments later, he was walking toward me carrying a flat rock, or what I soon realized was a turtle. It’s shell was about a foot in diameter, and the turtle was struggling to reach the Forest Mulcher Guy, presumably to bite off a finger.

“You want to take him home and make some turtle soup?” he asked me.

“No thanks. He seems pretty big”

“Well, they get to be this size when there’s no one around to pick on them.”

“What do they eat?”

“Anything that moves, but they’re particularly fond of small fish, like you have in your pond. Want me to take him out of the pond and down to the creek?”

“No, let’s just leave him alone. The fish will have to watch out for themselves.”

The Forest Mulcher Guy put the Snapping Turtle down on the ground and the turtle immediately took off for the pond. (When I say, “took off”, I mean slowly moved his turtle legs to propel him inch by inch back toward the pond.

I later read up on snapping turtles and discovered that this one was probably a female looking for a good place to lay her eggs. That’s why she was out of the water.

I also learned that turtle eggs, if kept warm, will turn into female turtles. If kept cooler, they will turn into male turtles. Hmmmmm.

I also read up about turtle soup. I’ve always enjoyed it, although I never knew why. According to several sources, turtles have seven uniquely different types of meat, leading to seven specifically identifiable flavors in turtle soup. Wikipedia referenced a nineteenth century cookbook which recommended turtles weighing about 120 pounds made the best soup: smaller, and it would not have enough fat, larger and the flavor would be too strong. My turtle was certainly not even close to weighing 120 pounds, so he (she) should be safe for the next 40 years.

Where I live, we don’t have snapping turtles, or any turtles at all that I can remember. We have grey squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and an occasional skunk and possum. I’m expanding my fauna experience.